Film director Roman Polanski was rejected for an honorary doctorate from Poland's most prestigious university because of a decades-old scandal involving his sexual conduct with a teenage girl.
"Nobody questions his artistic achievements, but this title is not just an ordinary university degree,'' says Jagiellonian University rector Franciszek Ziejka. "There is a question of moral stance here, and therefore we had doubts.''
Polanski achieved worldwide renown for his direction of films such as Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby, and Tess. But he pled guilty in 1977 to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl; while on bail, he fled to France to avoid sentencing, and became a French citizen.
The award would have been part of a celebration to mark the university's 600th anniversary this year, according to the Associated Press. The university Senate voted 24-18 with eight abstaining to remove Polanski from the list of honorees, the AP says.
One of the university's former theology teachers, Pope John Paul II, had received a similar honorary doctorate from the university in 1983, a precedent Ziejka says made many feel discomfited about giving it to Polanski.
