Allie D’Angelo ’20

Due to recent sexual harassment allegations, Arizona State University and the University of Kansas have simultaneously revoked awards given to Charlie Rose, a long time television host with shows on PBS and CBS, on Nov. 24.

In a release from Arizona’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Christopher Callahan, Founding Dean and Professor stated, “We hope to send an unequivocal message that what Mr. Rose did is unacceptable, and that such behavior – far too common in not just media companies but many organizations – must stop.”

Awarded to Rose back in 2015, the Cronkite Award does not only honor the journalist, but students and alumni of the school as well, according to Callahan. “The idea of ‘taking back’ a Cronkite Award is so foreign that the possibility was never even considered when the award was first created,” Callahan said in his release.

This is the first time the Cronkite Award has been revoked from a recipient since the school began to give the award in 1984.

Similarly, Kansas’ William Allen White Board of Trustees in the school of Journalism and Mass Communications also released a statement which read, “After recent reports detailed sexual harassment and a pattern of unprofessional behavior by Rose during his career, the William Allen White Foundation decided that Rose does not exemplify the ideals of this award.”

Alisyn Kercher ’20 approves of the universities’ decisions to repeal the awards given to Rose. “His actions should have more consequences than just getting his awards taken away,” Kercher said. “Imagine what kind of example it would send to the public.”