Howard Breaks Ties With Diddy

By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 8, 2024 4:55 PM CDT
Diddy Loses Honorary Degree
Sean "Diddy" Combs delivers Howard University's commencement speech during graduation ceremonies in Washington on May 10, 2014.   (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Howard University is cutting ties to Sean "Diddy" Combs, rescinding an honorary degree awarded to him and disbanding a scholarship program in his name, after a video was released recently that appears to show him attacking the R&B singer Cassie. "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," a statement from the university's Board of Trustees said, per the AP.

The statement said the board voted unanimously Friday to accept the return of the honorary degree Combs received in 2014. The board also directed university administrators to cut financial ties to Combs, including returning a $1 million contribution, ending the scholarship program and dissolving a 2023 pledge agreement with the Sean Combs Foundation. There was no immediate comment from a spokesperson for Combs. The hip-hop mogul admitted last month that he beat his ex-girlfriend Cassie in a hotel hallway in 2016 after CNN released video of the attack. In a video statement posted on social media, he said he was "truly sorry." Rolling Stone has reported that witnesses said they saw Combs beat a girlfriend while he was a student at Howard in the late 1980s.

(More Sean Combs stories.)

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