Phylicia Rashad stepping down as Howard University fine arts dean

Theater Hall of Famer and six-time Emmy Award nominee Phylicia Rashad is stepping down as dean of Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts after three years. The historically Black colleges and universities website HBCU Gameday on Tuesday posted an Aug. 7 email from Howard president Wayne A.I. Frederick to the “Howard University Community" that said Rashad, 75, will leave the position at the end of the 2023-24 school year.

“Dean Rashad has held a longstanding commitment to arts education and literacy,” Frederick, 52, wrote in part, saying that during her tenure “contributions to Fine Arts programming at Howard have increased significantly” and that Rashad has “bolstered our esteemed faculty with the appointment of nationally and internationally recognized scholars, artists, and creatives to serve as department chairs, mentors, teachers, and role models for our students.” The university will begin a search for a new dean “shortly.”

Rashad has not commented publicly, and neither Howard representatives nor Rashad, contacted at her university email address, responded to a Newsday request for comment. A month after her appointment in May 2021, the former “Cosby Show” star apologized for a tweet supporting comedian Bill Cosby, who had recently been released from prison after a court ruled that prosecutors had breached a non-prosecution agreement made in exchange for Cosby's incriminating statements in a sexual assault civil case.