UA president proposed honorary degree for Bill Cosby

University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hart planned to make Bill Cosby an honorary Wildcat this year but dropped the idea as rape allegations mounted against the comedian, public records show.

Cosby, who once was one of Hart’s bosses, was in line to be the UA’s commencement speaker in May until the president pulled the plug, the records show.

Shortly before a parade of women started accusing the star last fall, Hart launched a “highly confidential” internal process to award Cosby an honorary UA degree at the school’s spring 2015 commencement, internal emails from the school show.

Hart and Cosby are well-acquainted. Before coming to Tucson in 2012, Hart was president of Temple University in Philadelphia, where Cosby was on the Board of Trustees and was a popular commencement speaker.

Online video of a Temple graduation ceremony shows Cosby making his speech while Hart, onstage beside him, chuckles at his jokes. (See the video at tucson.com)

Cosby “was a public figure in good standing with a well-known commitment to education,” when Hart put his name forward for an honorary UA degree, university spokesman Chris Sigurdson said of the situation.

“When the allegations began to surface, we changed our mind,” he said in an email interview.

Sigurdson said the proposal didn’t get very far. “There was no formal invitation” to Cosby, he said, and Hart’s honorary doctorate plan was dropped without being forwarded to faculty and others for necessary approvals.

The emails, though, describe the UA-Cosby gig as a done deal.

“The speaker at the spring UA commencement exercises will be Bill Cosby,” says an October 2014 email from Ronald Marx, dean of the UA’s College of Education.

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“We would like to present him with an honorary degree as part of these activities,” Marx wrote in the email to a graduate student he asked to help him with preparations. “Needless to say you must not mention this to anyone. It is highly confidential.”

The email said Cosby might arrive a few days before commencement to spend time with graduates, alumni and students.

Marx is one of two subordinates Hart tapped — the other was Jon Dudas, senior associate to the president — to make arrangements for the honorary degree.

The two started work on Hart’s request Oct. 8, 2014. The last email between them was Nov. 3, 2014.

Emails also went back and forth between a Cosby staffer in Los Angeles and Hart staffer Amy Taczanowsky, executive associate to the president.

The Cosby staffer sent Taczanowsky information that included a list of “the things he likes when he does a commencement.”

For example, instead of wearing a mortar board, Cosby would have worn a UA ball cap with tassels stapled to the side. He also planned to wear a cotton sweatsuit with the school’s logo on it.

Cosby holds a doctoral degree in education, which he earned, and several honorary degrees given by universities at which he has done commencement speeches. Some of the honors recently have been revoked by schools that no longer want to be associated with the disgraced star.

Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. was the UA commencement speaker.