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Kevin Richardson will receive an honorary undergraduate degree from Syracuse University, the first such degree conferred in SU’s history, the university announced Friday.

SU students launched a petition last year to award an honorary degree to Richardson, who hoped to attend the university before he was wrongfully arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. Richardson visited the university for the first time in September 2019, when SU announced it had created a scholarship in his honor.

In 1989, Richardson and four other Black and Latino teenagers — Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana and Yusef Salaam — were falsely accused and arrested for the rape of a woman jogging in Central Park. It wasn’t until 2002, when the perpetrator admitted to the crime, that the “Central Park Five” were exonerated. The five men are now known as the Exonerated Five.

Chancellor Kent Syverud announced the honorary degree conferral in a virtual ceremony held as part of SU’s Coming Back Together Black and Latino alumni reunion. Though honorary degrees are typically doctorates, Richardson specifically requested his to be a bachelor of fine arts — the degree he had hoped to pursue at SU.

“We had planned to award this degree in our May commencement in 2020,” Syverud said. “We will reschedule our Commencement ceremonies as soon as we can. And we look forward to honoring you, Kevin, in person here in our stadium.”

After his exoneration, Richardson became an advocate for criminal justice reform through the Innocence Project, which works to exonerate individuals who have been wrongly convicted of crimes.

Richardson’s compassion, commitment to education and perseverance in the face of injustice made him uniquely qualified for the honorary degree, Syverud said.

“Syracuse University has never before in its 150 years awarded an undergraduate honorary degree,” he said. “I can’t think of anyone who is more deserving of this unique honor.”

Published on October 17, 2020 at 9:50 am

Contact Chris: cjhippen@syr.edu