HENDERSON, Tenn. (BNC) — Claims of sexual harrassment by speaker Bill Cosby caused Freed-Hardeman University to cancel his appearance at their annual benefit dinner Dec. 5. At the same time, the university announced today that potential 2016 US presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson had been secured as Cosby’s replacement.

FHU officials made the announcement through PRWeb, a site for news releases, rather than post it to their own university website.

The immediate announcement of Carson as Cosby’s replacement apparently indicates that university officials have been concerned for some time about the bad publicity that beleaguered the famous comedian and television star.

The annual benefit dinner that provides student scholarships celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

The news release identified the university as an institution “with locations in Henderson, Memphis and Dickson [which] offers an education from a Christian perspective to approximately 1,850 students.”

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