It couldn’t have happened to a nicer couple of guys
I have a friend whose part time job was to track and update the official entry on Wikipedia each time Bill Cosby lost an honorary degree. For a while his reports came roughly once or twice a week, and with each degree rescinded those of us who were involved with supporting Crosby’s victims would have a mini schadenfreude party.
So it is with a certain amount of nostalgic pleasure that I report that two caustic jerks have had their honorary degrees rescinded by the University of Rhode Island. I am referring to Rudy Giuliani and Michael Flynn (who is also a URI alumnus). It couldn’t have happened to a couple of nicer guys.
On Friday the University of Rhode Island’s board of trustees voted unanimously to revoke their degrees, which were given to Giuliani in 2003 and Flynn in 2014. Giuliani’s honorary doctorate of laws was given for his leadership as mayor of New York City after the 9/11 attacks. Flynn’s rescinded degree was a doctorate of humane letters.
The recommendation to rescind both honorary degrees came from the URI president, Marc Parlange, who said the two men, “No longer represent the highest level of our values and standards that were evident when we first bestowed the degree.” Something tells me they don’t even represent the lowest of those values and standards either.
Both men at one time possessed reputations that were reasonably intact, even passably honourable. No more. Nothing quite demolishes one’s social standing as an association with Donald Trump. Today, of course, Trump has nothing to do with either of them because both have outlived their usefulness to him. Despite Trump’s proven track record of fleeting loyalty there is still no shortage of fools queueing up to see if they will be the ones to attract his fleeting attention. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.