Honorary degrees market schools and provide cachet to students
By Claude Solnik
The Daily Record Newswire
LONG ISLAND, NY - Mike Tyson has one. So does Dolly Parton.
Aretha Franklin has at least four. Robert DeNiro has a few. Meryl Streep has them. George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and his father, Prescott, have them.
Billy Joel got one on May 22. And supermodel Carol Alt got one a few weeks ago.
Although that group has won Oscars, minted platinum records, snagged Sports Illustrated covers, prevailed in presidential elections and taken home heavyweight titles, they share one academic accolade.
Colleges and universities increasingly are bestowing honorary doctorates that commemorate success and accomplishment often done without or unrelated to degrees.
Even if neither earned a conventional college degree, Rapper Kanye West received a doctorate this year from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Jon Bon Jovi got his second, from Rutgers.
Honorary degrees, of course, are nothing new, but in a highly competitive atmosphere, they're becoming a way of recognizing accomplishment, while marketing schools, providing cachet and a sense of success to students. Long Island schools are very much part of the trend.
The New York Institute of Health Professions in Syosset a few weeks ago awarded an honorary degree to supermodel Carol Alt, saying she had become a well known holistic care advocate.
NYIHP President Lisa Pamintuan said "Alt has always served as a strong supporter for the health and wellness community" and brings a perspective and experience that "will be motivating as they move on to their careers."
Stony Brook gave William Martin Joel, AKA Billy Joel, a doctorate of music on Friday, while Ben Shneiderman, a computer science researcher who pioneered the highlighted textual link, got a doctorate of science.
Stony Brook also awarded CA Technologies co-founder Charles Wang, the owner of the New York Islanders, an honorary doctorate of humane letters, as he joined a growing club of doctors granted degrees.
"It shows our new alumni how much can be achieved with vision, dedication and perseverance," Stony Brook University President Samuel Stanley Jr. said. "These three individuals personify the relentless pursuit of excellence that Stony Brook embraces."
Although a degree honoris causa (Latin "for the sake of the honor") can bring a noteworthy and news-worthy person to a school and energize a commencement, some say schools may be star-struck.
"I think it's wrong," said Michael Carlin, who has taught communications and media as an adjunct and full-time professor at various colleges in the tri-state area. "I don't think anybody should get a degree unless they earned it and have been enrolled in the college or university."
Schools argue they are honoring hard work and accomplishment, key characteristics to succeed in academia. But Carlin believes they're chasing celebrity.
"It's sending the wrong message. They might work hard, but they didn't work hard at academia," Carlin continued. "It's marketing, publicity. I think it cheapens and devalues the degree itself."
While many schools use honorary degrees to single out accomplishment, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Cornell University and Rice University don't award them.
In 1819, the University of Virginia became the first university in the nation to establish a policy of not awarding honorary degrees, according to Wikipedia.
Although UCLA for many years had a moratorium on awarding honorary degrees, it has long honored people with the UCLA Medal.
Many of the nation's highly regarded schools, however, honor artists, athletes and academics.
Harvard has awarded honorary doctorates to a wide range of well-known figures ranging from Edward Kennedy to his highness the Aga Khan.
Harvard in 2014 awarded honorary doctorates to Isabel Allende, Michael Bloomberg, President George H.W. Bush, Aretha Franklin, Patricia King, Peter Raven, Seymour Slive and Joseph Stiglitz. And that was just in one year.
Yale in 2013 awarded doctorate to Sonia Sotomayor, in 2008 awarded a doctorate to Paul McCartney and in 2007 awarded one to actress Julie Harris.
Yale's 1998 class of honorary doctorates included Lena Horne, Stephen Hawking and Alan Greenspan, after the school gave George Herbert Bush one in 1991 and Prescott Bush one in 1962.
Even schools that don't award degrees often find other ways of honoring accomplishment outside of academia. The University of Virginia awards the Thomas Jefferson Medals in Architecture and Law. MIT has awarded honorary professorships. The Stanford Alumni Association awards the Degree of Uncommon Man/Woman for "rare and exceptional service" to the university.
Many honorees build buzz, but some prompt protests. Yale in 2001 awarded an honorary doctorate to George W. Bush, who obtained his bachelor's in history from the school in 1968. Some students and faculty boycotted commencement.
Many honorees have supported schools. After two Steinway grand pianos at Stony Brook's Staller Center for the Arts were damaged in a flood, Billy Joel donated a piano valued at $250,000.
Charles Wang, who retired from Computer Associates in 2002, donated to create an Asian and Asian-American cultural hub at Stony Brook known as The Charles B. Wang Center.
Schools occasionally honor unlikely public figures to make statements and attract attention. Long Island University's Southampton College, no longer part of LIU, in 1996 awarded a tongue-in-cheek honorary doctorate in amphibious letters to Kermit the Frog.
"As honorary doctors we promise to have regular office hours, put new magazines in our waiting room, and to make late night house calls," said the creation of Jim Henson (honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland).
Graduates of Southampton, known for its marine studies program, also heard Kermit deliver a more serious message about "preserving the beauty that is all around us" and an ecosystem.
Schools using their spotlight to honor accomplishment may be doing a service, but Carlin worries people may think they should focus on career rather than college.
"A lot of kids today feel, why bother going to college?" Carlin said. "It's very expensive. I need money and I need money now."
Still, for graduating students, it may not be bad to hear that their success will depend not just on their degree, but on what they do afterwards.
Published: Thu, May 28, 2015
