The University of Pennsylvania has decided to revoke the honorary degree it awarded to a casino magnate who is also a former trustee, Steve Wynn, following what it called “decades-long acts of sexual harassment and intimidation.”
“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,” David Cohen, chair of Penn’s Board of Trustees, and President Amy Gutmann wrote in an email on Thursday.
The university also announced on Thursday that it would revoke the honorary degree awarded to the entertainer Bill Cosby, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 60 women and will be retried on sexual-assault charges in April. When the allegations against Cosby became widely known, in 2015, a wave of institutions rescinded his honorary degrees. But Penn did not.
The allegations against Mr. Cosby are deeply troubling.
“While the allegations against Mr. Cosby are deeply troubling,” Steve MacCarthy, vice president for university communications, said in a written statement at the time, “it is not our practice to rescind honorary degrees.”
Penn’s decision to nullify Wynn’s honorary degree made it clear to the Board of Trustees that “the multiple and highly credible charges involving Bill Cosby warranted the same action,” the email said. It has been a century since the university last revoked an honorary degree.
Wynn, who is a Penn alumnus, will have his name removed from a plaza named Wynn Commons and from a scholarship fund that was established with money he had donated
The University of Iowa has also decided to remove Wynn’s name from its Institute for Vision Research. The institute was named for Wynn in 2013, in recognition of his $25-million pledge toward research to cure hereditary blindness.
University leadership determined retaining the name would be damaging to the institution’s reputation.
Despite the $20 million that Wynn has already donated to fulfill that commitment, “university leadership determined retaining the name would be damaging to the institution’s reputation,” a news release said.
Since the news of the allegations about Wynn became public, he has resigned as finance chairman for the Republican National Committee, and the Board of Directors of Wynn Resorts has formed a special committee to investigate the sexual-misconduct allegations.