University of Pennsylvania Takes Away Steve Wynn’s Honors. And Bill Cosby’s, Too.
At that time, the university said that while the allegations against Mr. Cosby
were deeply troubling, “it is not our practice to rescind honorary degrees.”
Before Thursday, Penn had not rescinded an honorary degree in a century, since it took similar action against Kaiser Wilhelm II
and Ambassador Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff of Germany during World War I.
“It became necessary, therefore, to consider the appropriateness of Mr. Wynn’s honorary degree and any other honorifics Penn had previously bestowed.”
“That decision in turn made it also clear that the multiple and highly credible charges involving Bill Cosby warranted the same action.”
A spokesman for Mr. Cosby, who faces a retrial on sexual assault charges in Pennsylvania in the spring, did not respond to a message seeking comment.
“The decision to remove the name Wynn Commons could not be made independently of considering
the other ways in which the university had previously recognized Mr. Wynn,” the email said.
Two years after declining to rescind Mr. Cosby’s honor, the university changed its mind on Thursday,
but only after deciding to strip the casino mogul Steve Wynn’s name from an prominent campus plaza and a scholarship, and to take back his own honorary degree.
In an email to the campus community, the university president, Amy Gutmann, and the chairman of its board of trustees, David L. Cohen, said Penn had made the decision because “the nature, severity, and extent of these allegations, and the patterns of abusive behavior they describe, involve acts and conduct
that are inimical to the core values of our university.”
But that left the issue of Mr. Cosby.