- University president awarded Bryant a doctorate without her request or knowledge.
- Bryant’s representatives say she never asked for or received the degree.
- Controversy raises questions about the legitimacy of Bryant’s credentials.
Dr. Cheyenne Bryant might not have been the mastermind behind her latest controversy after all.
After days of social media dragging, cease-and-desist chatter, and questions surrounding her credentials, new details suggest the self-help personality may have been blindsided by an Indiana university president who seemingly took matters into his own hands.
Dr. Cheyenne Bryant Says She Was Just As Surprised As Everyone Else
According to Marc Lamont Hill, who recently interviewed the president of the newly formed Indiana Southwest Christian University (ISCU), Dr. Jaquel Pitts admitted that he independently decided to award Bryant a doctorate in psychology—even though the school doesn’t actually offer doctoral psychology programs.
Hill said he walked away from the conversation with the impression that Pitts not only created the degree, but also shared the news with multiple media outlets, helping spark headlines and interview requests in the process.
Naturally, social media wasted no time pointing fingers at Bryant, with many accusing her of orchestrating the entire thing. But representatives for Bryant insist she had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Her team says she doesn’t personally know Pitts, never asked for a doctorate, and has yet to receive any diploma or official paperwork. They also claim Bryant learned about the announcement at the same time the public did.
As for the photo of Bryant and Pitts that’s been circulating online? Her camp says it was taken years ago after they attended the same event, where Pitts reportedly asked for a picture.
Marc Lamont Hill’s Investigation Raises More Questions
After taking a closer look at Pitts’ social media pages, Hill noted that the university president appears to regularly pose with celebrities and public figures.
By the end of his investigation, Hill suggested Bryant may have been an innocent bystander in a controversy that quickly spiraled out of control.
“Dr. Cheyenne Bryant may have had no involvement in this situation at all,” Hill concluded, while Bryant’s representatives continue to maintain that she never knew a degree was being issued in her name.
The Cease-And-Desist Drama Isn’t Going Anywhere
Of course, this latest twist comes after a wild weekend in the ongoing Cheyenne Bryant saga.
As Bossip previously reported, Pastor Jamal Bryant revealed that he received a cease-and-desist letter from Cheyenne Bryant herself after publicly apologizing for platforming her amid growing questions about her credentials.
The New Birth Missionary Baptist Church pastor claimed the letter wasn’t sent by an attorney but was signed and delivered by Bryant personally—and allegedly ended with the ominous warning, “govern yourself accordingly.”
“Over a month ago, I came to you and apologized for platforming Dr. Cheyenne Bryant,” Jamal Bryant said in an Instagram video. “I felt I had a responsibility considering that my sister is the former president of the American Psychological Association, one of the youngest to ever hold that position.”
He continued, “Not soon after that, I received an email, a cease-and-desist not to mention her name or to speak to the controversy. Not from anyone who was barred, it was from Cheyenne Bryant herself.”
According to Pastor Bryant, he initially chose to stay quiet.
“I said, ‘I’m gone walk away, I do not want to be a part of Black on Black crime.’ So, I let it go. Never addressed it. Never mentioned it again. Until yesterday.”
The University President Adds Another Layer To The Story
Things took another unexpected turn when Pastor Bryant revealed he’d received an email from Dr. Jaquel Pitts, who identified himself as the president of Indiana Southwest Christian University.
Pitts reportedly defended Bryant’s Ph.D. thesis in “theocentric psychology” but said he could not provide transcripts because of FERPA privacy laws.
Then came Marc Lamont Hill’s interview, which only made things stranger.
During the conversation, Pitts revealed that Indiana Southwest Christian University has only existed since May 2026 and explained that he personally decided to award Bryant a Doctor of Psychology degree because he wanted to affirm what she had already been publicly claiming.
“So, for this particular case, we decided to offer a doctor of psychology degree,” Pitts explained. “This is a very profound case, just to give some background on why I made this decision; this has been a talked-about matter for a consecutive amount of years.”
He continued, “I took the initiative upon myself because she has two honorary doctorate degrees; I took the initiative to give her an earned doctorate degree. In her interviews that she possesses online, she says, ‘I’m a doctor of psychology,’ so that was the primary reason that the degree was called the Doctor of Psychology because I wanted to validate her self-fulfilled prophecy.”
Pitts added, “Also there are individuals who doubted the validity of her degree so I said, ‘Ok, you know what? I’m gonna step up and I’ll grant her a degree,’ and now there’s proof that she actually has a degree.”
At this point, the internet has more questions than answers. But if Bryant’s camp is telling the truth, she may have spent the last several days taking heat for a degree she never asked for, never received, and didn’t even know existed. One thing’s for sure: this story has officially earned its own honorary doctorate in chaos.