President Barack Obama was invited to deliver a commencement address at the Arizona State University (ASU) the other day. His hosts at ASU -- Smell a rat? Isn't that in John McCain's home-state!?! -- had seen it fit to warn him in advance that he would not be getting any honorary degree from them, much as they desired that he grace the occasion. Their reasoning: His "body of work is yet to come."
Obama went anyway: Click here
Moral of the story: Honorary degrees are not rewards for political success -- or office.
Obama of course joked that those who chose to not award him a degree would have their financial records subjected to IRS scrutiny. He joked, but University Vice-Chancellors in Africa would not find such a joke a joke, but rather something real -- a sort of life-changing rebuke and promise. So our VCs continue to dish out honorary degrees (DOCTORATES) to all and sundry -- even people who will never earn a doctorate. Before you know it, these people are Dr. This and That, all over the place. There is, in all this, palpable devaluation of a good and inspiring thing -- so that those who aspire to earn it wonder if the effort is worth the effort; as they note with growing alarm -- the obscenity of it all -- that there is no place in which those who have it on a silver platter allow their last names to be mentioned at all without the prefix Dr.
Yet what is a mere Vice-Chancellor to do when pressed by those -- either the Chancellor himself, who doubles up as head of state and for whom the Vice-Chancellor technically or in principle "deputizes" at univerity, or the Chancellor's cronies -- who hold his/her fate in their hands and, by virtue of that fact alone, subtly or crudely demand a name-changing ceremony? But even ordinary citizens, who can tell a real doctorate when they see one (that is, determine that it was earned, not "taken" = nyakuad) are getting worked up by this rule of the jungle -- with none of the comic relief in PhDComics -- as was recently witnessed in Kenya. And they don't know how to stop it, or get relief.
With the mushrooming of universities around the world, including Kenya, nearly everyone with consequential muscles to flex is assured of his or her honorary doctorate. But standards are important: And a recognizable body of (scholarly) work seems to me a good, solid metric. Thank you, ASU!
2 comments:
While I share your concerns about the ease with which universities - in Kenya and in the US - give honorary degrees, the story of ASU deciding not to award a degree to Obama isn't nearly as simple as the decision to support good, solid scholarship.
Kim Campbell, Canada's 19th prime minister, received an honorary degree in 2005. Unlike Obama, who taught law at one of America's most prestigious law schools, Cambell abandoned her doctoral studies and became a lawyer before becoming a politician. (She did, later, lecture part time in political science after her policial career was over.) Her degree was awarded after a brief, catasrophic stint as PM, during which the Conservative government lost a major election.
Not only is ASU comfortable rewarding failed politicians with honorary degrees, they're happy to reward them for financial favors, as you're condemning in this post. William Carey, a real estate investor, was awarded an honorary degree in 1998 and returned the favor with a $50 million USD donation to the university a few years later.
I don't think this was about academic standards. ASU has the reputation as being a "party school' rather than a bastion of high academic standards. Indeed, 95% of incoming undergraduate applications are accepted.
While I agree with your concern that universities are devaluing honorary degrees, this isn't a good example of a university taking a stand - it's the example of a political spat between Republicans and Democrats in the US erupting in an ugly and embarrasing way.
Very informative comment on the goings-on at ASU -- which, frankly, I wasn't aware of.
I was taking the pronouncement from ASU at face value; and this, as you point out, wasn't its true, untarnished value at all.
Thank you, Ethan.
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