She will step down from her position as dean after the 2023-2024 academic year

Never forget that this actress/educator who is leaving her education role, was ride or die with her former co-star/serial s3xual assaulter.

Phylicia Rashad (The Cosby Show)
Dean of Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts

Bill Cosby

Phylicia Rashad resigns from her position as dean at Howard University

The two-time Tony Award-winning actress will step down from her role as dean of the historically Black university’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts following the 2023-24 school year, Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick announced this week.

About Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts:.

The college was renamed in honor of world-renowned actor, playwright, director, cultural activist, and Howard alumnus, the late Chadwick A. Boseman.

Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, the university’s outgoing president, announced Rashad’s exit in an email thanking her for her time and for her contributions.

“In 2021, Dean Rashad returned to alma mater to lead the re-establishment of the College of Fine Arts as an independent college and to restore it to its rightful place as the center for arts and creativity at Howard University”

“During Dean Rashad’s tenure, contributions to Fine Arts programming at Howard have increased significantly, anchored by a $5.4 million gift from Netflix to establish The Chadwick A. Boseman Memorial Scholarship.”

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In May 2021, the actor’s appointment marked the revival of Howard’s College of Fine Arts as an independent school, separating it from the College of Arts and Sciences where it had been merged in 1998 for financial reasons. However, just a month after Rashad became dean, her connection to “The Cosby Show” led to controversy. She appeared to support Bill Cosby when his 2018 conviction for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand was overturned due to a legal technicality.

“FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted – a miscarriage of justice is corrected!,” tweeted Rashad.

Rashad’s initial tweet celebrated this, but she later deleted it and expressed support for survivors of sexual assault, emphasizing her intention was not to be insensitive. Following backlash, she apologized to Howard University students and parents for her initial remarks.

“I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.”

By the end of that week, she sent an email to Howard University students and parents, offering her “most sincere apology” for celebrating the overturning of Cosby’s conviction.