--- title: Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Charges: Honors Still Held description: Many universities have rescinded his honorary degrees. But Cosby still hasn't been stripped of everything. canonical: https://time.com/4164372/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-charges-honors/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-30T18:51:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:28:12.106Z og:title: These Bill Cosby Honors Still Haven't Been Revoked og:description: And two of them never will og:url: https://time.com/4164372/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-charges-honors/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42de1f21f55fcff0/69887731428a9e1ad4cd0c08/bill-cosby-walk-of-fame.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Public Response To Bill Cosby Allegations og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Bill Cosby Honors Still Haven't Been Revoked twitter:description: And two of them never will twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42de1f21f55fcff0/69887731428a9e1ad4cd0c08/bill-cosby-walk-of-fame.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Bill Cosby Honors Still Haven't Been Revoked > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Dec 30, 2015 6:51 PM UTC  Clean-up of Bill Cosby's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after it was defaced with the word "rapist" on Dec. 5, 2014 in Los Angeles, Calif. Clean-up of Bill Cosby's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after it was defaced with the word "rapist" on Dec. 5, 2014 in Los Angeles, Calif. Chris Weeks—Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Dec 30, 2015 6:51 PM UTC Bill Cosby was charged with [aggravated indecent assault](http://time.com/4164142/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-2/) on Wednesday and if he’s found guilty, he could face [up to a decade in jail](http://time.com/4164355/bill-cosby-jail-sexual-assault/). As more and more women have stepped forward to accuse the comedian of assault, several organizations [have disassociated themselves](http://time.com/4164222/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-cut-ties/) from him. Many universities, for example, have rescinded his honorary degrees. But Cosby hasn’t been stripped of everything. Here are a few honors that haven’t been taken away: **The Presidential Medal of Freedom.** In a July press conference, President Obama [said](http://time.com/3959225/bill-cosby-barack-obama-presidential-medal-freedom/) he could not revoke the medal, which President George W. Bush awarded to Cosby in 2002\. “There is no precedent for revoking the medal,” Obama said. “We don’t have the mechanism.” A [petition](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/revoke-presidential-medal-freedom-bill-cosby) to revoke the honor, created by the group Promoting Awareness | Victim Empowerment (PAVE), did not meet its signature requirements. **Hollywood Walk of Fame star.** Leron Gubler, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive, [told](http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-activists-removal-of-bill-cosby-star-walk-of-fame-20150709-story.html) the Los Angeles _Times_ in July that Cosby’s star on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame would not be removed. “Once a star has been added to the Walk, it is considered a part of the historic fabric of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Because of this, we have never removed a star from the Walk.” **Several remaining honorary degrees.** Though several universities have rescinded the honor, others [have not taken any action](http://www.vulture.com/2015/10/bill-cosby-honorary-degrees.html#). For example, Cosby still holds an honorary degree from Temple University, the former employer of his accuser, Andrea Constand. (Cosby did, however, [resign](http://time.com/3612724/bill-cosby-temple-university/) from the university’s board of trustees a few weeks ago.) Some organizations, like the Smithsonian, are still associated with Cosby. A spokesman for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art [said](http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/smithsonian-pull-cosby-art-exhibit-charges-36010369) a Cosby-funded art exhibit will remain open as scheduled. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4164372/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-charges-honors/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4164372/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-charges-honors/"},"headline":"These Bill Cosby Honors Still Haven't Been Revoked","datePublished":"2015-12-30T18:51:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:28:12.106Z","description":"And two of them never will","url":"https://time.com/4164372/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-charges-honors/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42de1f21f55fcff0/69887731428a9e1ad4cd0c08/bill-cosby-walk-of-fame.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42de1f21f55fcff0/69887731428a9e1ad4cd0c08/bill-cosby-walk-of-fame.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Public Response To Bill Cosby Allegations","caption":"Public Response To Bill Cosby Allegations","creditText":"Chris Weeks—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4164372/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-charges-honors/","name":"These Bill Cosby Honors Still Haven't Been Revoked"}}]}] ```