On Nov. 12, 2017, Charlie Rose was accused of sexually harassing eight women in an article by The Washington Post. On Nov. 15, three more women from the television station CBS came forward with claims of sexual harassment as well.
Rose was the recipient of a honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Oswego State at the 2014 Louis B. O’Donnell Media Summit.
“These are credible allegations of predatory sexual harassment that completely conflict with the core values of our institution and significantly degrade the achievements that were the basis for awarding him an honorary degree,“ said Oswego State President Deborah Stanley in November 2017.
At that point, Stanley said she would be discussing the status of Rose’s degree with the SUNY Board of Trustees.
Rose had lost his position on the CBS news show “CBS This Morning,” as well as his positions at PBS and Bloomberg.
The first eight women who came forward with sexual assault claims against Rose said that he made unwanted sexual advances, appeared nude in their presence or touched them inappropriately.
One of the women to come forward after the story from The Washington Post said that Rose groped her and whispered a sexual innuendo into her ear at a CBS company event.
“I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate,” Rose said on Twitter Nov. 20, 2017. “I always felt that I pursued shared feelings though I now realize that I was mistaken.”
On Dec. 4, 2017, Oswego State Chief Communication Officer Wayne Westervelt confirmed that the school was beginning the formal process to revoke Rose’s honorary degree, following a News & Observer report that Duke University would revoke Rose’s award given to him nearly 20 years prior.
The process for revoking an honorary degree has come into play before and recently, with the revocation of Harvey Weinstein’s honorary degree from the SUNY University at Buffalo.
Revoking an honorary degree requires the school that granted the degree to first appeal their case to the SUNY Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees then has the final say if the degree can be revoked or not.
On Jan. 23, the Board of Trustees voted to remove Rose’s honorary degree from Oswego State, coming to the same conclusion they did in the case of Weinstein.
“Sexual harassment or misconduct, no matter the form, is not tolerated by the State University of New York,” SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson said in a statement.
Johnson said that Rose’s acts of inappropriate behavior, which he admitted to, not only were incompatible with the values of the State University of New York, but also totally overshadowed his achievements that first warranted his degree from Oswego State in 2014.
Photo provided by Peabody Awards via Flickr
