President Barack Obama has quite a remarkable track record in the realm of academics.
Obama received a bachelor’s degree in political science with a specialization in international relations from Columbia University.
He graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude as a Doctor of Jurisprudence.
The president was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for 12 years.
However, as impressive as Obama’s accomplishments may be, there is one school he won’t be adding to his resume any time soon: ASU.
The president, set to speak at the University’s May 13 commencement ceremony, will not be awarded an honorary degree.
University spokeswoman Sharon Keeler said that ASU awards honorary degrees in recognition of the accomplishments and body of work accrued over an individual’s life. “Because President Obama’s body of work is yet to come, it’s inappropriate to recognize him at this time,” she said.
Despite of the excitement surrounding the visit of someone of Obama’s magnitude, the University will not deviate from its policy of honoring people with long-established careers in their field of work just to gain itself a little more presidential affection.
For this, the six members of the Honorary Degrees Committee at ASU deserve great praise. It is not often that a state university like ASU garners the leader of the free world to deliver its commencement address, and it would have been easy (and completely expected) for the school to bend over backward in throwing all possible accolades the school has in its arsenal in the president’s direction.
After all, honorary degrees have become commonplace. It has become a modern custom for universities nationwide to award honorary degrees to any distinguished guests who have made a societal impact of any kind.
To that end, it has become a cliche and trivial practice, and perhaps even a joke. Bill Cosby, though he deserves kudos for earning an Ed.D. on his own accord, has a ludicrous 10 honorary degrees to his credit.
Even Stephen Colbert has an honorary doctorate from Knox University. And though we love the man dearly, there is no arguing that 90 percent of his actions are purely jokes.
Nationally, honorary diplomas are like federal stimulus dollars — there are so many, we’re desensitized to their importance.
Which brings us back to Obama.
We’re glad he’s coming to town — it’s an honor and a privilege. But as big of a deal as Obama’s appearance is, ASU seems to believe that standing on its principles is bigger.
The decision to not give out any honorary degree this year — whether to Obama or to anyone else who doesn’t match the rigid criteria — is a commendable statement by the University administration. To them, an ASU diploma is more than just a piece of paper to hand out willy-nilly.
For that, we should be thankful — the University’s decision to not further devalue its degrees is just one more reason why having the ASU name on our resumes will someday make our academic track records pop off the page.
