American Musician, Kanye West’s honorary doctorate from the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago has been revoked.
The president of the school, Elissa Tenny made this announcement in a statement on Thursday, December 8, stating that Kanye’s degree was revoked because of his recent antisemitic and racist outbursts.
“Kanye’s actions do not align with SAIC’s mission and values, and we’ve revoked his honorary degree,” Tenny said.
Kanye received his honorary degree from the university in 2015 for his artistic accomplishments at the time.
But after West’s series of antisemitic tweets, racist rants, and purported workplace misconduct, a few students at SAIC began a Change.org petition for Tenny to rescind West’s degree, something that had never happened since the school was founded in 1866 as the Chicago Academy of Design.
The petition garnered over 4,000 signatures and called out the role the honorary degree played in granting Kanye legitimacy, at a time when his comments were harming Jews and other individuals.
“This harm impacts Jews, whose lives are put in direct danger by the mainstreaming of antisemitic views.” The petition had read.
