By Jennifer Smola, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – Ohio State University’s Board of Trustees is expected to vote later this week on whether to rescind the honorary degree the school awarded to Bill Cosby nearly 17 years ago.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
Materials for this week’s board meeting released Monday show the trustees are scheduled to vote on the revocation of the honorary Doctor of Education degree granted to the comedian in 2001, when he delivered the commencement address before more than 5,000 Ohio State graduates on the Oval.
Ohio State has never before revoked an honorary degree, according to university spokesman Chris Davey.
Controversy has surrounded the former TV star in recent years amid allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted women for decades. Cosby was arrested in late 2015 and went to trial on charges he drugged and molested a woman in 2004. The trial included deposition excerpts from 2005 and 2006 in which Cosby admitted to giving quaaludes to women with whom he sought to have sex.
While that trial ended in a hung jury last summer, jury selection for a retrial began Monday in Philadelphia, where the judge has agreed to let additional accusers testify.
As allegations against him mounted, a number of colleges revoked Cosby’s honorary degrees in late 2015 and 2016, including Brown, Baylor and George Washington universities, and northern Ohio’s Oberlin College. Ohio State told media at the time that it was reviewing Cosby’s honorary degree.