- Ex-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani can keep his honorary degree from St. John Fisher College.
- The school’s board of trustees voted to cancel the degree, but did not meet the majority requirement.
- College graduates urged the school to revoke degrees after Giuliani spread unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud in the 2020 election.
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A New York college’s board of trustees did not have enough votes to overturn an honorary title for Rudy Giuliani, former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney.
As a result, Giuliani is able to retain his honorary degree from St. John Fisher College, which was awarded to him in 2015 for serving as Mayor of New York during September 11th.
According to 13 WHAM, a subsidiary of ABC News, the school’s board of trustees voted on the decision on Friday but did not have the two-thirds majority required to revoke the degree.
After the January 6 riot at the Capitol, St. John Fisher College was inundated with requests from former school government and class officials to overturn Giuliani’s degree, according to Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.
Giuliani pushed for disinformation and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election results, including repeated unsubstantiated claims of widespread electoral fraud.
His language and actions “were at odds with everything St. John Fisher College advocates, so we believe that his continued relationship with the college is permanently damaging the college’s reputation, campus culture and the prestige of future honorary degrees.” reads a letter from 15 alums according to the Democrat & Chronicle.
After the Capitol Rebellion, at least one Giuliani college revoked honorary degrees.
Middlebury College in Vermont overturned its 2005 degree because of its unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud in the 2020 election.
However, St. John Fisher College said “no further action will be taken” on the subject of Giuliani’s honorary title.
Two institutions – Lehigh University and Wagner College – announced in January the revocation of the honorary degrees awarded to Trump in the face of the unrest in the Capitol.
The board of trustees “voted to revoke and revoke the honorary title given to Donald J. Trump in 1988,” according to a statement on Lehigh University’s Twitter account.
Lehigh faculty members have been asking the university for years to revoke Trump’s degree, which he received at his inaugural ceremony in 1988. In 2018, nearly 300 Lehigh faculty members asked the Board of Trustees to overturn the degree. They argued that Trump’s statements and actions as president were inconsistent with the school’s values, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The trustees did not move.
The Wagner Board of Trustees also voted to revoke an honorary title he had received from the institution in 2004, according to a statement published online.
The uprising, which began after Trump encouraged his supporters to protest the election results, has been termed an attempted coup. Rioters stormed the Capitol as lawmakers met inside to confirm the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Five people, including a police officer, died. Members of the Proud Boys, classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, were reportedly present.
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