Obama May Get ASU Degree After All
Arizona State University now appears poised to reverse its policy of not granting honorary degrees to sitting politicians:
Michael M. Crow, president of Arizona State University, tells POLITICO that the school is reconsidering its widely mocked plans not to give President Barack Obama an honorary degree when he speaks at commencement on May 13 and will “honor him in every way possible.”
“There was no intended slight,” Crow said by telephone from his office in Tempe. “We had not yet talked about what honors we might give him as our commencement speaker, and we still have a month to work all that out. We don’t want anyone to think we do not recognize what he has achieved and what he means in America.”
A formal decision has not been made, but it was clear from Crow’s comments that the university is headed in that direction. ASU risked becoming a national punch line if it did not quickly retreat from its policy against conferring honorary degrees on a sitting politician.
…
“Typically, the university’s policy relative to honorary degrees has been that people who are sitting politicians, we don’t given an honorary degree,” he explained. “It’s kind of a local thing. We’ve gotten a huge reaction from a lot of folks as if some decision was made not to give him one. Far from it.”
Mistake. There’s no reason for ASU to change its policy. Moreover, the honor conferred by an honorary degree is lost if that degree is granted as a result of public pressure, even more so when the whining is accusatory and insulting, as it is at HuffPo.
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Marc;
Agree with you completely. I’m certainly no fan of the “honorary degree thing” but if you have a policy then stick to it. President Obama AND ASU will be just fine without the honorary degree.