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The University Senate’s Honorary Degree Committee decided to not move forward with rescinding Rudy Giuliani’s honorary degree after an April 2023 vote.

Last year’s committee asked the “petitioner” to provide additional information to determine if the resolution met the qualifications for rescission, according to a statement written to The Daily Orange by Michel Benaroch, this year’s chair of the committee.

“The committee didn’t receive the information requested by mid-April, at which time it informed the SU Senate that the committee couldn’t support the petition moving forward because a majority of its members felt that the information available to them does not meet the standard for rescinding,” Benaroch wrote in a statement to the Daily Orange.

The resolution to revoke Giuliani’s honorary degree passed with 76% of the University Senate voting in favor, 11% opposing and 13% abstaining in April 2022. When the resolution was passed to the senate’s honorary degree committee, three out of the five members voted against moving forward with revoking Giuliani’s degree, said Syracuse University alumnus Maximus Short, a member of the committee at the time of the vote.

Giuliani received his honorary degree from the university’s College of Law in 1989. Former Student Association President David Bruen, former SA Vice President Darnelle Stinfort and former Graduate Student Organization President Yousr Dhaouadi introduced the resolution when they were then in their respective positions.

Bruen said he presented the idea of revoking the honorary degree in response to Giuliani’s involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Riot. In the 2020 election, Giuliani sought to overturn election results in battleground states by pushing legal challenges to the election results and claiming election fraud.

Giuliani’s law license was suspended in New York state in 2021 following the riot. Short believes the committee did not want to take action in case a later decision came to reverse the suspension, damaging the university’s reputation.

In December 2023, a federal judge ordered Giuliani to pay $148 million to Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and Ruby Freedman, the two Georgia election workers he defamed.

In 2021, Drexel University and Middlebury College both revoked honorary degrees previously awarded to Rudy Giuliani, citing his attempts to undermine the 2020 election results.

Drexel University released a statement following its decision, writing that Giuliani’s recent actions include “repeated unfounded claims of widespread election fraud,” and have “significantly contributed to undermining the public’s faith in our democratic institutions.”

SU is one of five schools that have not revoked Giuliani’s honorary degree. St. John Fisher University, Loyola University Maryland, The Citadel in South Carolina and Georgetown University have also not rescinded his degree.

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Bruen said the university was cooperative in the resolution and the senate was interested in the idea. He is “sympathetic” toward SU, as he believes the university is dealing with other issues at the moment.

“Ultimately, there are people in these positions, they’re trying to do their best and are dealing with the most difficult problems literally going on right now,” Bruen said.

Bruen believes the issue should be revisited to preserve SU’s reputation. He said he views the resolution as addressing a “democratic” issue that SU should stand for.

“We need to be aspirational about what Syracuse is and what it stands for and where it’s going,” Bruen said. “I’m just very disappointed.”

Published on January 18, 2024 at 12:27 am

Contact Roxanne: rmboychu@syr.edu