Erma Bombeck, Hugh Downs, Howard Pyle, Jerry Colangelo, Art Buchwald, and Steve Allen to name a few from the check list of entertainers, sports owners, gossip columnists, and satirists that Arizona State University claims had lofty enough credentials to merit an honorary degree. In fact, since ASU ladled out its first honorary degree to Federick M. Irish and John Matthews on May 28, 1940 the cast of second tier politicians, writers, entertainers, artists, business tycoons, oil and gas magnets, and sports notables the school has dished out the award to flows off the pages.
Some years ASU just couldn't seem to shelve out enough of the paper symbols. In 1987 it gave out seven honorary degrees. In 1994 it gave out seven more. And in five other years the school handed out three or more honorary degrees. The recipients were the usual suspects and they were spread all over the map, artists, writers, entertainers, politicians, and business moguls. The only thing consistent about who ASU officials chooses to toss the paper too is there is no consistency.
The ASU honors committee mission statement is a study in brevity. It simply reads that faculty, the six person honors committee, and the president will "single out people who have made contributions to society." This purposely vague criteria for an honorary degree says everything and nothing. It pretty much makes the degree a subjective judgment call which comes down to money, politics, celebrity, or merely the like or dislike of a person. That's a far cry from the lofty, sanctimonious and smug academic nonsensical reason ASU officials gave for snubbing President Obama with the degree.
ASU president Michael Crow though has the final say so over whether President Obama will get the degree or not is. That could be another problem. Crow has been called insensitive, pig headed, and an unapologetic bigot for his alleged treatment of students, faculty, and especially women and minorities. The bill of particulars against Crow is that he fired 1/3 of the minority faculty at ASU west without justifiable cause, and that he has not hired an African American to serve as dean or a vice-president. He's also alleged to have fired a tenured African American professor even though a faculty committee that he appointed recommended that the professor be retained. Crow supposedly has turned a tin ear toward demands that he tell who and how many African-Americans the school has granted tenure to during his watch.
This is not the first time that Crow has been sledge hammered by charges that he's a closet bigot. Before taking the top spot at ASU, he served a stint as vice provost at Columbia University. Crow supposedly played hard ball in a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by a Latina professor. Columbia eventually was forced to shell out millions to settle the claim.
This is mostly hearsay and does not tag Crow as a president with a vendetta against women and minorities. So when the news broke that President Obama wouldn't get the honorary degree, all eyes quickly turned to Crow to do quick damage control and weigh in in favor of granting the degree to Obama. But that didn't happen. Crow gave a cryptic promise to a reporter that ASU would "honor him in every way possible." No mention was made of the honorary degree being that honor.
Crow and red faced ASU officials eventually will back down and grant the President the honorary degree. After all, Erma Bombeck certainly wouldn't object.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, "The Hutchinson Report" can be heard on weekly in Los Angeles on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and nationally on blogtalkradio.com
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the likes of George W Bush and his cronies.
1) Obama could be honored for being a best-selling author. Or a former IL state senator. Or a former US Senator.
2) By ASU's logic, a person like Senator Byrd could never be honored (don't get the wrong idea - I am not suggesting Byrd be so honored!) because Byrd has been a Senator for longer than ASU has been a university.
The racism is generally directed at brown people and red people , rather than black is because the black population is small, but given the opportunity I'm sure they will find it in their capabilities to switch targets.
I quite honestly say that living in AZ, that giving President Obama an honorary degree from here after all he has accomplished which is ten times what probably anyone at that university and 65% of the population here has accomplished....it would be an insult to his intellegence. He is better served having a scholarship nemaed after him...something that will continue to serve people rather than a speech and a degree that means nada but to collect dust.
This is a very minor issue.
Apparently ASU and Mr. Crow accidentally on-pupose (we'll-never-know-for-sure-but-they'll-never-forget-it) witheld a frequently bestowed honor from President Obama because someone there thought he hadn't quite earned it yet.? And now a bunch of people are trying to figure out how outraged we should be and what consequences ASU should receive...
As a huge supporter of our president, I have absolutely no doubt that he wouldn't want anyone to waste a single minute of time or energy on this. There are real problems to solve. Let's get back to business.
Meaningful of what in this case? Beauracratic bungling or bigotry? Maybe both? That rejection letter was certainly an idiotic, illogical, insulting and indefensible screed.