Howard University’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously on June 7, 2024, to accept Sean Combs’s relinquishment of the honorary degree the university conferred on him in 2014. Howard said the decision revoked the honors and privileges associated with the degree. The university also directed that his name be removed from its honorary-degree recipient records and ended related scholarship and funding arrangements.
What Howard’s board decided
The board’s June 7, 2024 action memo records approval of a resolution accepting Combs’s relinquishment of his honorary degree. In its public statement, Howard described the effect as revoking all honors and privileges associated with the degree and directed that Combs’s name be removed from documents listing the university’s honorary-degree recipients. The degree had been conferred in 2014.
The distinction matters: the board memo describes acceptance of Combs’s relinquishment, while Howard’s public statement says that acceptance revoked the degree’s associated honors and privileges.
Why Howard said it acted
Howard attributed its decision to Combs’s behavior shown in a recently released video depicting his 2016 assault of Cassie Ventura. The Board of Trustees said institutionally that the behavior was “so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor.” The statement was reproduced by the Associated Press; it was not attributed to a named individual.
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What happened to the scholarship and money
The university directed administrators to disband the scholarship program in Combs’s name, return his $1 million contribution, and terminate a separate pledge agreement with the Sean Combs Foundation.
| Arrangement | Amount and date | Howard’s stated action |
|---|---|---|
| Contribution from Combs | $1 million contribution; Howard said in 2024 it would return it. | Return the contribution. |
| Sean Combs Foundation pledge | $1 million pledge under a 2023 agreement. | Terminate the agreement. Howard said no payments had been made, so no funds were due back under the pledge. |
| Scholarship program in Combs’s name | Amount not stated in Howard’s account reported by the Associated Press. | Disband the program. |
Sources and scope
Howard’s June 2024 Board Action Memo records the board’s approval of the resolution. The Associated Press’s contemporaneous report reproduces Howard’s public explanation and reports the vote, rationale, and related funding decisions. The claims here concern the June 2024 decision and the information stated at that time.
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