At this difficult time in our University’s history, with about $90 million in state funding cuts tearing the school from its foundation and the subsequent ripple effects causing misery for students, staff and faculty, it is especially refreshing to hear about instances of ASU alumni giving back.

But some indignant Sun Devil graduates, as reported by the
Huffington Post, are giving back in all of the wrong ways — sending their diplomas in mass to the White House and going back on their commitment to the University by rescinding their donations.

Well, this may be Arizona, but everyone at ASU has undoubtedly learned this week that when it rains, it pours.

Somehow, despite the incessant efforts of the school’s administration to satiate the hordes of ravenous supporters of President Barack Obama, this torrential downpour continues to drench ASU with negative press and, in some cases, pure contempt.

That scholarship? According to public sentiment, the University can shove it. That explanation from ASU President Michael Crow about how a public university should not confer honors upon sitting politicians? Apparently, that’s not good enough.

So, what gives? Is there still that much more to be angry about?

Yeah, they messed up on the public-relations end. The way ASU handled the situation at large has very clearly been mistake-ridden. We should assume the horror story is already being written into PR class lesson plans and leave it at that.

Yeah, it made a compelling news story for a national media fixated on sensationalism. It produced controversy conducive to having people with polarized political views yelling at one another, the possibility of going off on slight tangents about racism, and of course, a chance to talk nonstop about our nation’s 44th president.

Indeed, with all of its ingredients for intrigue, ASU’s Obamagate was a prime target to become this week’s Octomom.

But now, one week later, this is really still a lightning rod of coverage? How terribly unfortunate.

Granted, we, too, are driving this story into the ground, but it’s our campus and now we’re forced to, as the news is only getting worse for the innocent perpetual victims stuck in the middle of this controversy: the students.

This is a time when the University is so buried beneath issues much more real than honorary degrees — cuts, furloughs, fees, surcharges, etc. There are more important matters for the administration to tend to.

Similarly, for alumni, there are many more areas of their alma mater that demand this much disquiet and dissent. It’s time to stop worrying about honorary degrees and to start focusing on real issues — for example, how ASU seemingly has just barely enough money to buy ink and paper for its student-earned degrees.

We would never tell alumni what they can and cannot do with their money — it’s theirs and they can stop contributing to ASU at any time. We would just like to ask them, especially at this time in the institution’s history, not to do it for this reason.

Who would get hurt as a result? The students, of course — a group not even involved in the honorary degree debate and a group that does not deserve this punishment, particularly not in the midst of discussions to dramatically increase their cost of attendance. 

How productive is the revocation of donations, anyhow? Regardless of the threats, the outcome of this remonstration is the same as it has been all week: nobody wins, but the students lose.

So, as far as we’re concerned, people who are sending their degrees back or asking for their money back out of shame toward the school because of one largely insignificant event ought to just rip up their ASU diploma. They are being close-minded and forgoing rational thought for radical political thought. Then, ironically, they are the ones ultimately shaming the education they received.

This University is bigger than one appearance from Obama. For one thing, it was the only university in the nation formed by public referendum. Civic action is at its heart.

To hear that ASU graduates are willing to undo their thoughtful civic action over a public-relations mishap is troubling. The fact that alumni are willing to negate their good intentions and hurt current students shows that this University has bigger fish to fry, that it is reeling even more than we think.