Dive Brief:

• The University of Massachusetts Amherst is the latest higher education institution to cut ties to Bill Cosby in the face of growing publicity of sexual assault allegations against the comedian by more than a dozen women.
• The move on Wednesday came after Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said that the university should no longer have a formal relationship with Cosby unless he “is able to satisfactorily respond to these allegations.”
• Other schools that have cut ties with Cosby include Berklee College of Music in Boston and High Point University in North Carolina. But Temple University, his undergraduate alma mater, has resisted calls to sever its relationship.

Dive Insight:

Considering the campus sexual assault issue that so many schools are dealing with, this is a particularly difficult time for schools to be associated with the comedian. Cosby and his wife, Camille, have given between $250,000 and $499,999 to UMass-Amherst, and he raised $1.5 million for the school at a benefit performance. He was honorary co-chair of the $300 million fundraising campaign for the school, where he received master’s and doctoral degrees in education, and he resigned at the school's request.