ASU Honorary Degree Policy For Sitting Politicians Not Documented
TEMPE, ARIZONA - Arizona State University became the unlikely focus of a political firestorm last week when news broke that ASU would not be conferring the customary honorary degree on President Barack Obama when he gives the commencement speech in May. The university's official reason cites a policy of not giving honorary degrees to sitting politicians -- but one sitting politician did receive an honorary degree from ASU and the university has now admitted that the policy was only "verbal" and never documented.
According to President Michael Crow:
Since my appointment, 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.
Virgil Renzulli, Vice President of Public Affairs, explains that the policy was actually changed in 2003, the year after ASU President Michael Crow arrived, and after Robert Stump, a sitting member of Congress, was awarded an honorary degree.
Renzulli says Stump was selected for an honorary degree before Crow was appointed, but the conferment of the honorary degree was delayed due to illness.
A source who works closely with the Honorary Degree Committee, though, says no mention of sitting politicians has been included in the Committee guidelines, and he believes no policy was ever implemented regarding sitting politicians.
State Press reporter Adam Sneed interviewed members of the committee last week and no mention was made of a policy regarding sitting politicians. In fact, when asked about an honorary degree for Obama, committee member Paul Patterson said it had not had time to evaluate Obama for an honorary degree. No mention had been made of any policy related to sitting politicians. In fact, no mention was made of any policy related to sitting politicians until the story had been in the national news for nearly two full days.
ASU has also been unable to produce any documentation of any policy related to sitting politicians and the conferment of honorary degrees. Renzulli said, in an official statement to Huffington Post today:
The policy was changed in 2003 and it was communicated to the members of the honorary degree committee at that time. If this has not been discussed in the presence of newer members of the committee it may well be because no nomination for a sitting politician has been submitted to the committee since then.[emphasis added]
Regarding the lack of documentation, Committee Co-Chair Christine Wilkinson says (emphasis added),
The university's policy on honorary degrees is a combination of written and verbal instructions. The criteria pertaining to sitting politicians and donors is part of the verbal instructions.
ASU media relations spokesperson Sharon Keeler reiterated ASU's apology "for the confusion around the honorary degree process" and promised "to take steps to make sure something like this does not happen again." Presumably, those measures will include documenting the committee's guidelines and policies.
Are you an ASU student or alumnus? HuffPost wants to hear from you. What are people saying on campus? As an alumnus, will this affect your decision to donate to your alma mater? Write us at submissions+ASU@huffingtonpost.com.
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Thank god I do NOT have a degree from ASU! They SUCK.
What's the ASU presidents' name? Jim Crow? Are they going to have separate podiums, one for whites only, the other around back for Obama?
Let's see, if he's a the first president of color of the United States of America, then he doesn't deserve an honorary degree. If he is the 46th white president, no problem.
Likely to become a firestorm? It would be shameful for alums and anyone with a brain not to be stunned and appalled and voice such an opinion!
Since there are no documented guidelines regarding honorary degrees for sitting politicians and the instruction to committee members is "verbal," it means that ASU is winging it, and badly at that.
The Board of Regents needs to take this over before it gets any worse, and knowing Crow, he'll manage to botch this issue at least one more time before the commencement address.
ASU has put Arizona on the map with the other racist states that hate Obama because he is black. To say he has not done anything worthy is CHILDISHLY IGNORANT. He has achieved what no other has at this point. Thinking people will head for another state, another college, because they went on record as the racist state and join Virginia and N.C. in their shame.
If john mccain wasnot interested in making Dr. Martin L. King's birthday a legal holiday, (and he was a man for all races), what makes you think he would want his home state and schools to be a party to President Obama's honorary accomplishments. Come on now, I'm a white woman and even I can see what color lines are being set up here. I just feel sorry for the students whose parents thought they were doing the right thing by educating their children at ASU. President Obama has too much class to worry about something as immaterial as john mccain and that university. The state of AZ should be honored that a MAN of his character would even consider speaking there after all his accomplishments. john mccain should take a lesson from President Obama's life and try to emulate it. It might help his health problems.
And these are the people responsible for running a large university?
No wonder ignorance abounds in Arizona!
btw... I am a resident of AZ, so it is OK for me to talk down about it.
Dear Dr. Crow
Due to an unforeseen international incident the President of the United States is unable to participate in the commencement exercises at ASU.
In his place we are sending President GW Bush whose accomplishment is surely deserving of an ASU honorary degree
ASU should know that if you make up one lie, you have to make up 12 more lies to cover that one lie. Slippery Slope!
Fortunately, we have a President who will take the hight road and speak at ASU.
Unfortunately, ASU's reputation will be in the garbage for a very long time!
For Michael Crow, humility comes before a fall. If you don't know anything about a man or his politics, learn how to look, listen, read, and if all else fails, THINK, for your self. Isn't that what you teach your children? OOPs, I forgot, you don't get paid to think. My bad.
Michael Crow has a huge ego. Rather than admit that he and his staff made a mistake and yes, the first African American president should be honored on a much higher level than an Arizona politician, he dug his heels in and refused to simple say Oops our bad of course we are going to give Obama an honorary degree. Now ASU not only looks racist, it looks foolish and all so that Crow could save face. Seriously, just issue a statement that says "In retrospect we realize that all policies, no matter how well intentioned, need to be flexible. Once we realized how strongly the American people felt about honoring Obama in every way possible, we should have rethought our position. We are doing that now and it is our intention to present President Obama with an honorary degree in addition to the other honors we have deemed appropriate for marking this significant occasion in the history of America and ASU."
ASU President - "...... what day is it? wow..... I think I hit my head..... of COURSE we will award President Obama with an Honorary Degree, who wouldn't right? I mean, he's the President of the United States for God's sake!"
That's change you can believe in.
There's only on thing that can restore honor to the university at this point — Hara-Kiri
We already know they've lied about this slight, lets just move on.
A letter from the WH to ASU 36 hours before the commencement:
Dear Dr. Crow,
Due to an unforeseen international incident the President of the United States is unable to participate in the commencement exercises at ASU.
We thank you for your understanding.
Best of luck.
R. Emanuel
And we are sending Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank to speak in my place. Enjoy!!!
How about Mitch McConnell?
No........
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