(Liberty Bell) – Several universities across the United States have decided to rescind honorary degrees, which are usually handed out to individuals for extraordinary achievements despite not being a student at the school, from prominent folks who served within the Trump administration.
Alexa Schwerha, writing for the Daily Caller, stated that just last month, Syracuse University got the ball rolling concerning a motion to rescind an honorary degree that was given to former New York City mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. You know, the guy who was mayor during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and helped unite the city together in the midst of an unprecedented tragedy. What a way to show your continued gratitude for his excellent leadership.
Syracuse University has not revoked one of its honorary degrees in its entire 152-year history as an establishment of higher learning.
“Giuliani argued that there was widespread election fraud during the 2020 election. He faced a criminal probe in Georgia regarding the presidential election results and appeared before a grand jury in August,” Schwerha wrote.
“The University Senate, which approved a resolution in April demanding that the Board of Trustees rescind the degree, did not originally have a process to do so in its bylaws. However, university spokesperson Sarah Scalese confirmed to Business Insider that a process has now been adopted,” she continued.
“David Bruen, Student Association president, told Business Insider that while the process has been slow, Giuliani’s degree could be revoked by spring. The decision now lies with the Senate Committee on Honorary Degrees,” Schwerha added.
For the first time in its 152 year history, Syracuse University is poised to revoke an honorary degree for conduct causing serious reputational damage to the university.
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani pic.twitter.com/h2iIqaRml6
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 23, 2022
“Syracuse University should definitely rescind Mr. Rudy Giuliani’s honorary degree,” Bruen said in a statement given to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “I have been calling for his honorary degree to be rescinded since last fall in my first term as Student Association President. Mr. Giuliani’s conduct around the 2020 election alone is enough, in my view, to rescind his degree. He’s undermined our elections and continued to spread unsubstantiated lies.”
Syracuse is also not the first university to rescind an honorary degree awarded to Giuliani. In fact, if Syracuse does implement the new system, the school would be the fourth school to do so, following in the footsteps left by Middlebury College, Drexel University, and the University of Rhode Island.
“I have seen some argue that this is too political or even a waste of time, but to those individuals I would say that institutions like Syracuse University need to have open, free-flowing dialogues about our values and to ultimately take stands on issues that matter to our nation, such as the bedrock of our democracy and the health of our electoral system,” Bruen asserted.
However, four other universities have made the decision not to revoke Giuliani’s degrees. St. John Fisher University, Loyola University Maryland, the Citadel, and Georgetown University will not be stripping away the degrees given to the former mayor of New York City.
“In addition, universities including Lehigh University and Wagner University stripped Trump of his honorary degrees following the Jan. 6 capitol riot, Forbes reported. Robert Gordon University in Scotland rescinded the honorary degree in 2015 during Trump’s first campaign for president,” the Daily Caller reported.
“In a special session… of the Executive Committee of the Lehigh University Board of Trustees, the members voted to rescind and revoke the honorary degree granted to Donald J. Trump in 1988,” Lehigh University remarked in a 2021 statement that was shared with the DCNF.
The only university to not revoke the honorary degrees awarded to former President Donald Trump is Liberty University.
“At St. Lawrence University in 2018, more than 1,800 alumni and dozens of faculty members demanded that the school strip Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine of her honorary degree which was awarded a year prior, CBS News said. The letter cited her vote to confirm Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh during his hearing as their reason to disaffiliate.”
“Harvard students circulated a January 2021 petition titled ‘Revoke Their Degrees’ which demanded the Ivy League take academic degrees away from multiple conservative alumni including former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, Fox Business reported. The letter claimed the three alumni spread ‘disinformation’ about the 2020 election which led to Jan. 6 events,” the Daily Caller noted.
Of course, when these universities received a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation, none of them replied.
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