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Lehigh University’s Board of Trustees voted for a second time Friday to take no action on a request from the faculty to rescind President Trump’s honorary degree, awarded in 1988.
A large majority of Lehigh's faculty members voted in favor of revoking Trump’s degree. Of 472 eligible faculty members, 357 voted on the measure, and of these members, 83 percent were in support of the motion to rescind the president's honor.
The board wrote in a statement released Friday, “The members of the board are committed to doing what is in the best interests of the university as a whole, including most especially demonstrating openness to and respect for the broad views and perspectives of our many university constituencies.”
In August, following Trump’s controversial remarks about the violence in Charlottesville, Va., Lehigh University alumni organized a petition to request the action, accruing more than 31,000 signatures to date. The board voted to take no action on the request last October.
Lehigh rescinded an honorary degree awarded to disgraced performer Bill Cosby in 2015. Cosby’s degree was bestowed on him in 1987.
