A quarter century ago, Spelman College, a highly rated liberal arts educational institution for African American women in Atlanta, received a $20 million gift from Bill and Camille Cosby. As a result, an endowed visiting professorship was established at the college and in 1996, the college opened the Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center.
Now, on the heels of accusations of rape by nearly 20 women against Bill Cosby, Spelman College has removed the Cosby name from the endowed professorship. In an email sent to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a college spokesperson stated:
“The William and Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Endowed Professorship was established to bring positive attention and accomplished visiting scholars to Spelman College in order to enhance our intellectual, cultural and creative life. The current context prevents us from continuing to meet these objectives fully. Consequently, we will suspend the program until such time that the original goals can again be met.”
Aku Kadogo, who was serving as the Cosby Endowed Professor for the 2014-15 academic year, is now listed as a “Spelman Distinguished Visiting Scholar.”
Why not return the Cosby money?
LOL. It’s funny when you see people running away from Cosby. It shows you how powerful the media is. They can make Santa into a devil and John Kennedy Jr. into a saint.
How ignorant of Beverly Tatum……I have lost ALL respect for this woman! You know of Bill Cosby’s lifelong legacy and in the blink of an eye you cast him aside like discarded trash??? You know nothing of these women, except these insanely poorly scripted allegations…….none of them sound plausible. They describe the allegations reading fom a scipt. You are not hurting Cosby by this suspension….you are hurting young women, who could benefit. This family lost a son, donated 20 million to Spelman…..and now you join 20 plus women….none of whom have dropped a dime in donations to Spelman- to destroy the man’s legacy……how tacky! THINK….YOU’RE SUPPOSEDLY EDUCATED.
THIS IS A PLOT TO KEEP HIM OFF TELEVISION, YOU REMEMBER HIS REIGN WITH THE COSBY SHOW. CANT YOU SEE HOW THEY DONT WANT TO GIVE PRESIDENT OBAMA ANY CREDIT??? ALL FOR THE SAME REASON …THE COLOR OF HIS SKIN. ISNT IT IRONIC THEY WAIT UNTIL COSBY SHOW’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY.
…..BTW, IM A RECIPIENT OF COSBY’S FINANCIAL GIFTS. He’s like a father to me. Watching “A Different World” made me want to go to college.
I wholly support what President Tatum has done. She is president of a woman’s college that supports black women. 20 women–some of whom are black–have raised serious accusations that have taken much more than a blink of an eye for many of us to accept. I find it very difficult to believe that anyone would be interested in plotting to keep Cosby off TV. In my humble opinion, there is a world of difference between attacking Cosby and Obama.
I think the more appropriate parallel is between those who can’t accept that Thomas Jefferson had an affair with Sally Hemings because he wrote the Declaration of Independence and was never convicted in the courts.