Students and alumni at Howard University are calling for Phylicia Rashad’s firing over her reaction to her longtime co-star and tv husband Bill Cosby being released from prison this week.
“FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” Phylicia Rashad wrote in a now-deleted tweet, reacting to Cosby’s surprise release from prison.
Rashad — who returned to her alma mater in May to be the Howard University’s new dean of College of Fine Arts — received heavy backlash for her tweet praising the convicted Hollywood star.
The university’s campus community and others on social media began calling for Howard to fire Rashad, using the hashtag #ByePhylicia.
“Howard University should tell Phylicia Rashad #ByePhylicia, and fire her ass as Dean. Having a Dean of students that is a sexual assault apologist and stands in support of a predator,” one Twitter user wrote.
“As a @HowardU School of Fine Arts alum, and as a survivor, this tweet from @PhyliciaRashad is disappointing,” another said. “I hope we can have a dean who believes & respects survivors.”
“@HowardU FIRE @PhyliciaRashad IMMEDIATELY. #ByePhylicia,” another Twitter user commented.
“As a Howard grad and survivor I also can’t imagine the pressure to remain silence this adds to any student. We all deserve better,” another wrote.
“I hope @HowardU listens to its students and fires @PhyliciaRashad. #ByePhylicia,” another tweeted.
Rashad deleted her original tweet, and then issued a follow-up tweet appearing to walk back her initial comments.
Rashad’s backpedaling, however, did not sit well with social media users, who took to the comment section of her tweet to share their thoughts.
“You told 60 victims that their assaults didn’t matter,” one Twitter user responded. “You told the young women at Howard University not to come to you if they are victims of assault. You hurt a lot of people today.”
“We heard you clearly the first time,” another wrote. “I feel sorry for the students at Howard knowing their Dean will not be on their side if they are assaulted and you are friends with their attacker. #ByePhylicia.”
The university also took to Twitter to respond to Rashad’s comments, insisting that the “personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University’s policies.”
“Survivors of sexual assault will always be our priority,” Howard said in a statement. “While Dean Rashad has acknowledged in her follow-up tweet that victims must be heard and believed, her initial tweet lacked sensitivity towards survivors of sexual assault.”
“We will continue to advocate for survivors fully and support their right to be heard,” the university added. “Howard will stand with survivors and challenge systems that would deny them justice. We have full confidence that our faculty and school leadership will live up to this sacred commitment.”
Howard’s statement, however, did not satisfy all students and alumni of the university.
“Hold her ass accountable,” Howard student Whitney Meritus declared on Instagram, according to a report by the Daily Beast. “I’d take a non-famous dean who believes SA victims over a celebrity dean who does shit like this… Don’t get me wrong, I know she was his professor and all, but I don’t think she deserves to lead the Chadwick A. Boseman School of Fine Arts. Not anymore.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.