According to the Philadelphia news site Billy Penn, Bill Cosby has resigned from Temple University's board of trustees Monday. Temple released Cosby's statement:
"I have always been proud of my association with Temple University. I have always wanted to do what would be in the best interests of the university and its students. As a result, I have tendered my resignation from the Temple University Board of Trustees."
Cosby attended Temple University in the early '60s on a scholarship, and has been a huge booster for the school. He became a trustee in 1982. In recent weeks, as accusations of sexual assault from multiple women have gone from a whisper to a scream, both public and private institutions have fled from Cosby. But Temple stuck by him even as pressured mounted against the school to disassociate itself from him. According to reports, the board was to meet soon to discuss its relationship with Cosby.
Cosby's first public accuser, Andrea Constand, was the director of operations for Temple's women's basketball team, which is how she met Cosby. According to her lawsuit against him, they met in 2002, and bonded over the basketball program. In the suit, Constand alleged that Cosby invited her to his home in January 2004 and gave her three pills that "would help her relax," but made her "dizzy and weak" instead. She said that Cosby then sexually assaulted her. As part of the lawsuit, 13 other women, several of whom have spoken out under their own names since, said they would testify to having had similar experiences with Cosby.
Cosby has never been charged with a crime. Constand did go to the police in 2005, but they did not arrest the comedian. Bruce Castor, the former Philadelphia district attorney who oversaw the case, recently said: "I didn't say that he didn't commit the crime. What I said was there was insufficient, admissible, and reliable evidence upon which to base a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. That's 'prosecutors speak' for 'I think he did it but there's just not enough here to prosecute.'"
Cosby settled with Constand in 2006.