(NewsNation) — Following the release of the Cassie Ventura assault video, Howard University voted unanimously to revoke Sean “Diddy” Combs’ honorary degree.
“This acceptance revokes all honors and privileges associated with the degree. Accordingly, the Board has directed that his name be removed from all documents listing honorary degree recipients of Howard University,” the Howard University board of trustees said in a statement. “Mr. Combs’ behavior as captured in a recently released video is so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor.”
The board voted to return Diddy’s $1 million donation to the school and to “terminate a 2023 pledge agreement, worth $1 million, with the Sean Combs Foundation.”
During Diddy’s time at Howard University, he allegedly assaulted his girlfriend and “terrorized” other students, Rolling Stone reported. Diddy studied business at Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1987, but he dropped out during his second year.
Diddy appeared to violently assault Cassie Ventura in video
Hotel surveillance video from 2016 appears to show Combs violently attacking, kicking and shoving his former partner Cassie Ventura, who filed a federal lawsuit against the music producer last year.
The footage obtained by CNN matches Ventura’s description of a physical altercation in her now-settled lawsuit against Combs.
In the video, Combs is seen running in a towel after Ventura, who is seen standing in front of an elevator bank. He aggressively grabs and drags her down and then kicks her before picking up her luggage. He is then seen dragging her on the floor back to a hotel room as she braces her head. Minutes later, Ventura returns to the elevator bank and picks up a phone on the wall. Diddy comes back and appears to shove her into the corner. He then sits on a chair near her and aggressively throws an object at her.
NewsNation’s Safia Samee Ali contributed to this report.
If you or someone you know is a victim of intimate partner violence and needs help, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text “START” to 88788.