It has been reported that Tamron Hall, co-host of NBC’s 9 a.m. hour of the “Today” show and the host of MSNBC’s “NewsNation With Tamron Hall,” was nominated to sit on the board of trustees for Temple University.
According to the Huffington Post, she is set to fill a vacant spot on the board that opened when Bill Cosby left last year. Cosby’s reputation has been inundated and virtually destroyed by a sexual scandal, in which he has been accused of raping more than 30 women over a 40-year timespan.
Temple University seemed enthusiastic about their choice of Hall as Cosby’s would-be replacement. The school shared a vibrant news article on its website, highlighting Hall’s achievements. The article also shared a quote from Board of Trustees Chair Patrick J. O’Connor, who said, “Tamron is a supremely talented journalist and television anchor who represents the best of our School of Media and Communication and this university. We look forward to working with her and anticipate that she will make important contributions to the board.” Nonetheless, the hopeful tone of Hall’s nomination took an unexpected turn when Hall’s official election, which took place Oct. 13 at a public hearing at the Philadelphia-based university’s health and science campus, was interrupted by protesters.
The protesters’ qualms were not with Hall, but with Temple University’s president, Dr. Neil Theobald. The Temple News reported a follow-up to the school’s website’s announcement of Hall’s nomination, stating, “Early on in the meeting, several 15 Now members interrupted President Theobald during his regularly-scheduled speech to the trustees.”
The protest, which lasted approximately 10 minutes, started moments after Theobald began speaking. The activists said several times Theobald hasn’t responded to their emails and refuses to meet with them about the issue of minimum wage.
15 Now members added the university could be doing more to help those in deep poverty in Philadelphia. As members of the organization were being led out of the meeting by Temple Police and security, one man shouted, “Bill Cosby is a rapist!”
Although there was a dramatic interlude within the public meeting that covered a plethora of issues, from approving a $170 million construction project for a new library and a $22 million development of a new athletic field, Hall, a 1992 alumna, was welcomed onto the board of trustees with a unanimous vote.