ASU: No Sitting Politicians Get Honorary Degrees--Except One Arizona Republican
The mini-drama surrounding Arizona State University's refusal to award President Barack Obama an honorary degree may have a second act.
Obama is scheduled to deliver a commencement address at ASU next month, and last week, the university touched off a bit of controversy by suggesting that he hadn't "been in [his] field" for enough time to deserve an honorary degree just yet.
There were, unfortunately, some problems with that rationale.
But over the weekend, the university announced the formation of the "President Barack Obama Scholars" program. And, though they haven't decided to give Obama a degree, Politico's Jonathan Martin reported on Saturday that ASU President Michael Crow sent an email to faculty and students re-justifying that decision.
"Since my appointment," Crow wrote, "we have not awarded honorary degrees to sitting politicians, a practice based on the very practical realities of operating a public university in our political environment."
And that's, perhaps, the rationale they should have used in the first place...except that it's not completely true. Crow became ASU president on July 1, 2002 and on Dec. 19 of that year, ASU awarded an honorary agree to Robert Stump, a lame duck Arizona Congressman who was finishing up his last term in office.
That may or may not be enough of a contradiction to reignite last week's flame war--but at the very least one imagines Crow and ASU will be a bit more circumspect about who does and does not receive an honorary degree for the remainder of his term.
Late update: Julie Newberg, a spokeswoman for ASU, emails to say that Stump "was selected before Dr. Crow arrived." Emphasis mine. I have no way to corroborate this--I asked in response if Crow had raised any objections to the award, and received no answer. And though the information in the post is accurate (Crow wrote "[s]ince my appointment we have not awarded honorary degrees to sitting politicians"), it seems fair to provide this bit of context.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Chuck D already covered this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39DJqI8puV0
April 13, 2009 10:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
And your point is?
I, even though I'm retired, cannot keep track of every news outlet. If I hadn't seen this story here I might have missed it.
And it's not as though this is the first time a blog has had a story that another blog has covered, too.
April 13, 2009 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
The O.P. was being ironic / making a point. Watch the video, and you will understand.
April 13, 2009 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?city=PARADISE+VALLEY&st=AZ&last=crow&first=michael
CROW, MICHAEL M
PARADISE VALLEY, AZ 85253
MCCAIN, JOHN S (R)
Senate - AZ
FRIENDS OF JOHN MCCAIN INC $1,000
primary 02/26/03
April 13, 2009 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hilarious.
Is the phrase "eating crow" appropriate here?
April 13, 2009 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
How deep are they going to dig this hole. KEEP DIGGING!
April 13, 2009 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Heh heh, yeah, their own mouths created this controversy. If only they had come to a decision before blabbering off.
April 13, 2009 11:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Totally created by the person saying that Obama's "body of work" doesn't merit, yet, an honorary degree.
April 13, 2009 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
The guy already has a doctorate. A real one. From Harvard. Why does he need a pity degree from ASU?
April 13, 2009 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
law degree, not a doctorate. But I agree with the underlying meaning of your point.
April 13, 2009 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't mean to be overly critical, but could you try to get the lede a little higher up in the story? The whole point of the post is that they DID give an honorary degree to somebody, and the headline says it was an Arizona Republican, but the name comes at the end of the sixth paragraph of a seven paragraph story. And you don't identify Stump as a Republican in the story--the only indication we have on that point is the headline.
April 13, 2009 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why is that a problem? The key point of the story is that ASU says "We don't do this" but new evidence shows "Yes you do." The fact that it was a Republican who got the degree (and the identify of the recipient) is explanatory and interesting, but is secondary to the real "news" here.
April 13, 2009 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Usually, if I don't need to scroll the screen to read the whole post, I don't complain about the lack of good inverse-pyramid form. And if the lede's in the headline, I think it's pretty much by definition not buried.
There's enough crappy English usage here and elsewhere in the blogosphere that I try to pick my battles.
April 13, 2009 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I lived in Arizona for ten years, and personally I'd rather have an honorary degree from any state U besides ASU. Lets stop pretending that the intent of Michael(JIM)Crow is not a sleight to the president of the US. I'd add racism to the obvious political statement. Even Goldwater would be ashamed of this ass.
April 13, 2009 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder which side he came down on when AZ had to be dragged kicking and screaming to observe a holiday for Dr. King.
April 13, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please get your facts straight.
"Arizona" was not dragged kicking and screaming into honoring MLK.
Our asshole governor, Ev Mecham - a right-wing loon and Arizona's homegrown Harold Stassen who mistakenly got into office thanks to Bill Schultz, a Democrat who refused to respect the results of the primary process after losing and ran as an independent, splitting the Democratic vote - unilaterally canceled the King holiday.
The only people who supported that action were the knuckle-dragging neanderthals in heavily GOP districts of the East Valley and West Valley. Pretty much the rest of us thought it was idiotic and embarrassing.
(The NFL didn't help matters by yanking the Super Bowl, as that only emboldened 'don't tell us what to do, you East Coast elitists' sentiment)
The King day fiasco - along with a nearly daily parade of gaffes and stumbles and outright incompetence - led to an unprecedented recall of a sitting governor which was cut short only because the GOP Legislature decided to cut their losses by impeaching and convicting Mecham.
So, let's get this straight: Arizonans did not reject King Day, our government did because it was held hostage by far right idiots.
April 13, 2009 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
If the only other honorary degree they've given out is to a lame duck Congressman (who's essentially exiting politics) from seven years ago, then I shall give the President of ASU the benefit of the doubt. He needs work on public relations, but unless he digs himself deeper, this is forgivable.
April 13, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree; it's splitting hairs a bit, but does amount to a contradiction. In the "reality-based community", it's more telling that schools all over the country give honorary degrees to new Presidents (and all sorts of other dignitaries) who speak there. Their representatives are obviously full of crap; it's too bad that the only way to *prove* it is a narrow fact like this.
April 13, 2009 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, but if schools didn't give meaningless honorary degrees to guest speakers, we wouldn't have "Cheating Death with Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A.", so...
I haven't been following this, but I hope there's been no indication Obama or anyone at the White House gives a crap about this. Why TPM does is beyond me.
April 13, 2009 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a person w/ a real doctorate from a real school who worked real(ly) hard to get my doctorate, I think the whole idea of giving out "honorary" degrees is silly. Given that, I think the purpose should be comedy -- so I'm happy with Dr. Colbert.
April 13, 2009 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Change sitting politicians to Active politicians, and there's no problem.
How non-story can a non-story be? (hint: The intensity of flame-wars in Academia is often an inverse indicator of the actual stakes.)
April 13, 2009 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stump served 26 years in Congress. His career ended 2 weeks after he got the degree, but the Congress had actually concluded it's business a month earlier. He died 7 months later.
If the policy is intended to avoid political disputes, giving Stump a degree fell within the spirit and intent. So let's not allow this matter to further distract us from the many GOP nutcases who are seeking to undermine our President.
April 13, 2009 6:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
It would be a fine policy - no honors to sitting politicians - if it were a consistent one. Crow is doing his best to spin it with the scholarship program, but he's catching flack from left and right alike on this one. Sad to say, but there is an element in my state that will always be two generations behind the times. But it is getting better (slowly).
April 13, 2009 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
"ASU does not give honorary degrees to sitting politicians" is about as hollow as "The United States does not torture" since both things happened in the past 8 years. Just because it isn't happening today doesn't mean that it can't happen again.
It is time, way, way, way past time actually, for the President to investigate and prosecute the torture that happened in our name.
April 13, 2009 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
They dig a deeper hole by the day. Can they look anymore pathetic? The reputation of ASU is sinking with every comment. Do they not understand that silence is their best option.
April 13, 2009 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's be honest here: Obama is not getting the honorary degree or two reasons: He defeated Mccain, and the second is that Obama is 1/2 Black. When has AZ been Black friendly?
April 13, 2009 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey neesy08, a hearty "FUCK YOU" from this lifelong Arizonan. This isn't Ala-fuckin-bama, you moron.
April 13, 2009 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
That could be offensive to Alabamans.
April 13, 2009 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
ORLY?
Recorded lynchings from 1882 to 1968:
Arizona: 31 whites, 0 blacks
Alabama: 48 whites, 299 blacks
April 13, 2009 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Under normal circumstances, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt for not being careful about politics or appearance.
But after 8 years of thuggish Bush/GOP vitriol, I'm assuming it was the usual GOP pettiness. This guy is an AZ Republican, pro-McCain hack. These clowns can't lose an election like grownups, and instead will pout, sulk, and stomp their feet for 8 years.
How pathetic.
April 13, 2009 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can only speculate as to why Crow decided not to honor Obama with an honorary degree.
Few around here know his personal politics. It IS suspicious that ASU did honor in such a manner Bob Stump, who wasn't just a Republican but a very, very, very right-wing Republican. It's true he served for a number of years in Congress, and one can make the reasonable argument that it makes more sense to honor a long-tenured Arizona member of Congress upon his retirement rather than a president who, while popular, has no connection to Arizona.
(of course, Stump hardly did anything for our state, because he was so against federal spending that he refused to bring home the bacon for his district. I guess some would call that a 'principled' stance...)
I would not consider a $1,000 donation to McCain as an absolute statement of Crow's personal convictions. I might think otherwise if someone could show me a pattern of GOP donations by Crow.
I would hate to think that Crow is bowing to political pressure from bitter GOP dead-enders in the Legislature, but the fact is that thanks to Janet Napolitano leaving for DC, our government is now in the hands of right-wing wackos who have been slashing ASU's funding.
Nevertheless, as another commenter pointed out, Obama's got a degree from Hahvahd. Why the fuck would he care about an honorary degree from Arizona State?
(and I'm speaking as a Sun Devil alum!)
April 13, 2009 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
They must have a absurdly inflated view of the worth of their honorary degrees that they are being so stingy with them.
Honorary degrees are like monopoly money. They have no real meaning. They're like thank-you notes for giving a speech.
April 13, 2009 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
As far as I know Michael Crow is neither a rascist nor a right-wing Repbublican. He is just incompetent. ASU is a sea of blue surrounded by a desert of Red, confirmed by the fact that Obama spoke here during the campaign. In fact, I suspect that the White House accepted the invitation to Commencement because of a prior Obama/ Crow relationship; there were rumors that Crow would be leaving for a position in the Administration.
There have now been at least three explanations/apologies eminating from the University President's office. Crow has had big problems with the State Legislature, the faculty, and the student body in the last two months and the current mini-drama is merely a reflection of his inability to communicate effectively outside his own little bubble.
April 13, 2009 6:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can't we all just get along . . . and talk about Arizona State baseball?
April 14, 2009 1:13 AM | Reply | Permalink