No Honorary Degree for Obama--They Save Those For Goldwater and O'Connor
As you may have heard by now, Barack Obama will deliver a commencement address to the graduates of Arizona State University on May 13, but ASU won't return the favor by granting him an honorary degree.
Sharon Keeler, a spokeswoman for the university told Politico, "It's normally awarded to someone who has been in their field for some time."
"Considering that the president is at the beginning of his presidency, his body of work is just beginning," she said.
Just for fun, we pulled up ASU's list of honorary degree recipients and did some Google-ing and discovered a couple interesting things:
Barry Goldwater received his honorary degree in May 1961, three years before his failed bid for the presidency and only eight years into his three decades as a U.S. senator. And according to the East Valley Tribune "Sandra Day O'Connor was similarly recognized just three years in her 25 years on the U.S. Supreme Court."
The subtext here, of course, is that Goldwater and O'Connor (two Arizonans) had no problem getting honorary degrees from ASU after clearing a bar of service that Obama has at least matched. And, naturally, that Obama beat some guy from Arizona for the presidency. Perhaps there's more at play here than an objective assessment of Obama's achievements.
There's surely more examples like this, so look for yourself. The list is long, and, though O'Connor is the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, none of the people on it are the first black President of the United States.
Late update: Sam Stein posts a letter from ASU's Office of the Provost:
Dear xxxxxxxxxxxx,We have tremendous respect for President Obama, and that is why we invited him to speak at our graduation ceremony. We are honored that he accepted our invitation, and that we will be the first university in the nation to host him for a commencement ceremony.
In recent years, we have determined not to give honorary degrees to sitting politicians or major donors, but to do so based on an individual's body of work. While President Obama has already achieved remarkable success--including becoming the first African-American president--his greatest work is yet to come. We will be delighted to consider him for an honorary degree once he leaves office at the end of his presidency.
Sincerely,
Emily Dalton Smith
Director of Communication
Office of the Provost
Arizona State University
Incidentally, John McCain himself has not received an honorary degree from ASU.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Am I wrong in remembering that Arizona was one of the last or the last state to approve MLK day and it was a big deal to get them to sign on?
April 10, 2009 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) voted against the creation of the holiday to honor King, and later defended Arizona Republican Governor Evan Mecham's rescinding of the state holiday in honor of King created by his Democratic predecessor. After his opposition grew increasingly untenable, McCain reversed his position, and encouraged his home state of Arizona to recognize the holiday despite opposition from Mecham.[12]
In 1990, Arizonans were given an opportunity to vote to observe an MLK holiday. McCain successfully appealed to former President Ronald Reagan to support the holiday.[13] Prior to that date, New Hampshire and Arizona had not observed the day. Throughout the 1990s, this was heavily criticized. After a 1990 proposition to recognize the holiday in Arizona did not pass, the National Football League boycotted hosting Super Bowl XXVII at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe.[14]
Link
April 10, 2009 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
...And by "Yes", CT Voter means "No".
April 10, 2009 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops. I did mean no.
April 10, 2009 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let me say up front that I think ASU's decision is foolish. As an alum, I will contact them to share my opinion (FWIW). However, I will disagree with many of the comments here from fellow TPM'ers.
AZ Gov. Bruce Babbitt did declare the holiday by Executive Order - as many other states did. After next Gov. Mecham rescinded that Exec Order is when the crap hit the fan. BUT, as it ended up, AZ was the ONLY state to have its CITIZENS VOTE FOR THE HOLIDAY! (sure, U2, Public Enemy, the NFL and so many others helped, but, still, we're talking 61% of Arizona voters supporting it (in a year when Clinton nearly snagged our electoral votes).
April 10, 2009 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hugh Downs.
Steve Allen.
Tony Hillerman.
Jerry Colangelo.
But not Barack Obama?
Nice going, ASU.
April 10, 2009 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's OK. I'm sure the WH already has plenty of toilet paper.
April 10, 2009 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
You forgot Kermit the Frog.
April 10, 2009 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Kim Campbell was Prime Minister of Canada for five whole months, and she wasn't elected by the people, but replaced the retiring Brian Mulroney by way of party insider vote.
April 10, 2009 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Raul H. Castro sticks out like a sore thumb!
April 10, 2009 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why????
April 10, 2009 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, President Obama probably accepted ASU's invitation because he thinks he could turn the state blue in 2012, so they decided to snub him. The question is why did ASU ask him in the first place?
April 10, 2009 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, at least Obama has an actual degree. From Harvard.
April 10, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
And Columbia.
April 10, 2009 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
These professors that made this decision have embarrassed the entire university. What a shame for the students that go there. Talk about embarrassing.
April 10, 2009 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
They're already embarrassed. ASU is third-rate at best.
April 12, 2009 3:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can't be made about this...What do you expect from A Shitty University!
April 10, 2009 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unless you plan on a major in alcohol consumption, I don't know any other reason for going there.
April 10, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
...now!
April 10, 2009 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Should have given the commencement address at UCLA (Ralph Bunche, Jackie Robinson).
April 10, 2009 4:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey...
April 10, 2009 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
But Obama's a known beer drinker.
April 10, 2009 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is beyond comical. The man has degrees from Columbia and Harvard (Occidental, too?), has been a professor of law, and ASU thinks it's honorary degree is too precious to bestow on someone who became the first African-American president. It's truly an academic version of "The Mouse That Roared."
April 10, 2009 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not defending ASU, but seeing as how they honored Doug Wilder 4 years ago, I dont' think race is the issue, just stupidity.
April 10, 2009 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Completely agree.
April 10, 2009 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dear President Crow (ASU's Prez):
As an alum, I do hope that you will overrule the decision not to award Pres. Obama an honorary degree. Alternatively, that you will appeal to the committee which made the decision to reconsider.
The stated reasons for not so recognizing him do not stand up to the straight face test and make the university seem foolish (at best).
Thanks--Paul
April 10, 2009 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, this news is now mainstream because iGoogle had it on my frontpage.
April 10, 2009 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think this issue is kind of silly, and I say this as a Democrat and a big supporter of Obama.
Criticizing an institution for not honoring our president seems like something Republicans would have done in the past eight years. A president of the United States is not a monarch. If it turned out that ASU had in the past offered an honorary degree to another president, but decided not to offer it to this one, then that might be an issue. But I think it's silly and goes against the philosophy of a democratic republic to say that a university should feel some sort of pressure to award the president of the United States an honorary degree just because he's the president.
April 10, 2009 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Y'think, perhaps, that a man who was president of the Harvard Law Review doesn't have much need from an honorary degree from Arizona State.
April 10, 2009 8:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
"from" "of" silly prepositions messin' me up
April 10, 2009 8:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
I bet Obama doesn't care, if he even knows about this "controversy" at all. It says nothing about President Obama, and everything about ASU. Has Gibbs been asked about this yet?
ASU has probably cost themselves a lot of money with this issue. It's SOP to give commencement speakers an honorary degree, so Republican donors really wouldn't have batted an eye. However with the perceived slight Democrat donors will threaten to withhold donations and as it now looks like ASU might cave, that decision will certainly outrage Republican donors who will now withhold money.
April 10, 2009 8:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
ASU is doing this specifically to try to embarass Obama, or insult him. (just my opinion) That is the problem. OF course Obama has no interest in an honorary degree from ASU
April 10, 2009 10:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Methinks this is an insult.
April 10, 2009 10:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, well, me in turn thinks that we're all reading way too much into this, and are proving ourselves all too ready to pick a fight over an imagined slight.
As the letter from ASU's Emily Dalton clearly states, "In recent years, we have determined not to give honorary degrees to sitting politicians or major donors, but to do so based on an individual's body of work." (Emphasis mine.)
Therefore, the ASU administration is simply being consistent with a policy that was adopted in the fairly recent past, i.e., probably within the past ten years. As was noted above in the original post, that was not necessarily the university's policy prior to that point in time.
Further, if President Obama is clearly comfortable with this desicion and policy and doesn't take personal offense, as his decision to deliver the commencement addtress implies, then who are we to be doing such in his stead?
April 11, 2009 3:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
I doubt Obama himself is very upset about this.
So they invite him back at the end of his 2 successful terms and give him one then.
April 11, 2009 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink