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Bill Cosby is a frequent presence at Temple University, which he attended from 1961 to 1962 and later earned a degree. He’s also a board member – and the University, as of Friday, has said Cosby will remain one, declining to comment further.
And at Temple in September 2004, Cosby gave a speech about sex and respecting women, according to the Daily News. The article about the speech, which isn’t available online, reports that Cosby told women they would be “inviting something” if their skirts were “all the way up.”
The article about the event was written by Scott Flander, now a freelance writer and author. The Temple donor spoke to a “couple hundred” freshman and transfer Temple students at the Liacouras Center, clad in his usual Temple sweatshirt and Temple sweatpants. Flander, apparently writing as though he was a freshman, wrote:
He also told us about how guys shouldn’t punch their girlfriends, because they’ll call the cops and you’ll get locked up.
And how we shouldn’t take advantage of girls when they’re drunk.
“She can be drunk,” he said, “but when you wake up, you’re going to jail. For a long time.”
Cosby, per Flander, also aimed some of his message at women, telling them not to dress provocatively:
And that’s when he starts telling us about date rape, and assault and alcohol and drugs. …
But it wasn’t just for the guys, it was for the girls, too. He told them how they shouldn’t wear provocative clothes.
Like, one thing he said was, “Do you really mean it when you’re wearing what you’re wearing and you’re showing what you’re showing?”
And then he said, “You’re inviting something.”
This speech happened four years after a woman first accused Cosby of sexual assault and about four months before Temple’s director of basketball operations, Andrea Constand, would accuse him of sexual assault. Her civil lawsuit, later settled out of court, included similar accusations from 13 other women.
As of this afternoon, a total of 18 women have accused Cosby of sexual assault. Last week, Cosby said, “I know people are tired of me not saying anything, but a guy doesn’t have to answer to innuendos. People should fact check. People shouldn’t have to go through that and answer to innuendos.”
