The school announced the news on Thursday after students launched a petition.
Kanye West’s honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has been rescinded, and the school’s president condemned the artist’s recent antisemitic and racist statements.
“Ye’s actions do not align with SAIC’s mission and values, and we’ve rescinded his honorary degree,” President Elissa Tenny said in a statement to BuzzFeed News on Thursday. Tenny described the recent comments from the rapper, who recently changed his name to Ye, as “anti-Black, antisemitic, racist, and dangerous, particularly those directed at Black and Jewish communities.”
Ye received his honorary degree in 2015 for his artistic accomplishments at the time.
But after Ye’s series of antisemitic tweets, racist rants, and alleged workplace misconduct, some students at SAIC started a Change.org petition for Tenny to rescind his degree, something that had never happened since the school was founded in 1866 as the Chicago Academy of Design.
The petition reached over 4,000 signatures and called out the role the honorary degree played in granting Ye legitimacy at a time when his comments were harming Jews and others.
“This harm impacts the artists, designers and scholars affiliated to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and their values of justice, compassion, and free expression without hatred,” the petition reads. “This harm impacts Jews, whose lives are put at direct risk by the mainstreaming of anti-semitic views.”
On Thursday, Tenny sent a letter to faculty announcing the news. The organizers of the Change.org petition celebrated the development.
