Howard University’s board has decided to rescind the honorary doctorate the historically black university awarded to music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs a decade ago, specifically citing video made public last month showing Combs assaulting singer/dancer Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura.
“The Howard University Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to accept the return by Mr. Sean Combs of the honorary degree conferred upon him in 2014,” a spokesperson for the school said in a statement.
The university noted that it will also walk back multiple partnerships it made with Combs, including returning a $1 million donation Combs made to the school in 2023 and disbanding a scholarship program that had been named after him.
“This acceptance revokes all honors and privileges associated with the degree. Accordingly, the Board has directed that his name be removed from all documents listing honorary degree recipients of Howard University,” the statement continued. “Mr. Combs’ behavior as captured in a recently released video is 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 University is unwavering in its opposition to all acts of interpersonal violence,” the school stated. “The Board has also directed the University administration to immediately take the following actions: terminate a 2016 gift agreement with Mr. Combs, disband the scholarship program in his name, return his $1 million contribution, and terminate a 2023 pledge agreement with the Sean Combs Foundation. No payments toward the $1 million pledge have been due or made by the Sean Combs Foundation as of this date, therefore no funds are due to be returned under the 2023 pledge agreement.”
Howard, where Combs attended before dropping out in 1990, awarded him with the doctorate degree in May 2014.
“Howard University didn’t just change my life — it entered my soul, my heart, my being and my spirit,” Combs, who attended the school as a business major, said at the time. “Nobody is going to invite you to the front of the line, you got to push your way to the front of the line.”
He added, “Ain’t no homecoming like a Howard homecoming… And it feels so good to be home.”
