DeWitt Wallace Center revokes award given to Charlie Rose

The DeWitt Wallace Center has rescinded an award it gave broadcast journalist Charlie Rose in 2000. 

In an email announcing the decision, Bill Adair, Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy, said the Center was taking the “unprecedented” action to make it clear the school did not tolerate such conduct. Two weeks ago, the Washington Post published a report in which eight women accused Charlie Rose, Trinity ‘64 and Law ‘68, of unwanted sexual advances. Rose, who received the Futrell Award in 2000, admitted to some of the allegations in the article and apologized. 

“Indeed, the recent revelations about Rose and other media figures are disturbing signs about sexual harassment in the industry,” Adair wrote in an email to public policy and journalism students. “Rescinding Rose's Futrell Award is one way we can make clear that this conduct is not acceptable in any way. We do this as much in sadness as anger given his long relationship with the university.”

Both PBS and CBS fired Rose from CBS This Morning shortly after the Washington Post report. Last Friday, Arizona State University’s journalism school rescinded Rose’s Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism and the University of Kansas journalism school took back its William Allen White National Citation.

At Duke, Rose was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity and on The Chronicle's staff. In 2016, Duke awarded Rose an honorary degree at commencement, when he also addressed the Duke Law School’s 2016 class. Rose’s honorary degree was the subject of a discussion by the Honorary Degree Committee. 

However, no decision was made about Rose's honorary degree during the Board of Trustees meeting this weekend. President Vincent Price said the matter “continues to be under discussion.”