If honorary degrees implied actual scholarly achievement, then Bob Hope, Bill Cosby, and Fred Rogers would be our greatest intellectuals -- they collected a combined total of more than 200 such degrees, mainly because their accomplishments as entertainers were deemed “contributions to society.”
Colleges have long used faux sheepskins to praise the achievements of those who might otherwise have been ignored by academe. The famously self-educated Benjamin Franklin, for instance, received his honorary degree from Harvard College in 1753 for his experiments with electricity.
But over the past 250 years, this populist tradition has spawned a rather wide definition of worthy recipients. Consider this month, when the deceased tap-dancing legend Gregory Hines, the former sitcom actor Tony Danza, and the rock star Alice Cooper will be handed honorary degrees during commencement ceremonies at Rutgers University, the University of Dubuque, and Grand Canyon University, respectively.
Purists criticize colleges for using the degrees as a currency to gain publicity or generous donations. They may have a point. Here are a few examples of the embarrassments, controversies, and unintended humor that the honorary-degree tradition has brought forth:
- Perhaps it was fun to have the boxing sensation Mike Tyson at Central State University’s 1989 graduation ceremonies, in Wilberforce, Ohio, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters. Ideally, graduates didn’t emulate his subsequent criminal conviction and ear-munching.
- As chairman and chief executive officer of Enron at the time, Kenneth L. Lay may have inspired graduates at the State University of New York College at Oswego in 1999 when he received an honorary doctorate of humane letters and said there were “no limits” to what they could do with their lives. Observing the limits of accounting laws, however, could have saved his company.
- The University of New Hampshire at Durham announced a $5-million donation from Tyco International Ltd. in August 2000, just three months after granting an honorary doctorate to the company’s chief executive officer, L. Dennis Kozlowski. Little did anyone know that Mr. Kozlowski’s biggest patron was himself. Two years later he was indicted for spending millions in company money on personal luxuries.
- Long Island University’s Southampton College sought to publicize its marine- nd environmental-science programs in 1996 when it gave Kermit the Frog an honorary doctorate of amphibious letters for his teachings on “life, ecology, and friendship.” But students complained to the news media that having a “sock puppet” deliver their commencement address made a mockery of their education.
- The Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra never made it past the eighth grade, yet Roger Williams College and Montclair State University both gave him honorary degrees. When asked how he liked school, the king of one-liners responded: “Closed.”
http://chronicle.com Section: Short Subjects Volume 50, Issue 36, Page A8