rssASU Prez Backs Down on Obama Degree Controversy
Saturday, April 11, 2009 at 10:54 am
- 11 Comments
Looks like someone over at Arizona State University has the good sense to avoid an obvious and unnecessary P.R. disaster-in-the-making.
From Politico:
Michael M. Crow, president of Arizona State University, tells POLITICO that the school is reconsidering its widely mocked plans not to give President Barack Obama an honorary degree when he speaks at commencement on May 13 and will “honor him in every way possible.”
“There was no intended slight,” Crow said by telephone from his office in Tempe. “We had not yet talked about what honors we might give him as our commencement speaker, and we still have a month to work all that out. We don’t want anyone to think we do not recognize what he has achieved and what he means in America.”
A formal decision has not been made, but it was clear from Crow’s comments that the university is headed in that direction. ASU risked becoming a national punch line if it did not quickly retreat from its policy against conferring honorary degrees on a sitting politician.
Past recipients of ASU honorary degrees included an aloe-vera magnate, the director of “Victor Victoria,” a Chinese official, a Canadian politician, and lots of donors and fundraisers.
Update: Sam Stein reports that ASU, now apparently in full damage-control mode, announced Saturday that it will rename and expand its “most important scholarship program” in honor of President Obama.
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11 Comments
Pingback posted April 11, 2009 @ 1:38 pm
[...] its widely mocked plans not to give President Barack Obama an honorary degree when he speaks ASU Prez Backs Down on Obama Degree Controversy – washingtonindependent.com 04/11/2009 Looks like someone over at Arizona State University has the [...]
Comment posted April 11, 2009 @ 7:07 pm
they were right the first time — Obama's body of work is not deserving of an honorary degree. Shame on them for giving in to PC.
Comment posted April 11, 2009 @ 7:50 pm
No one is deserving of an honorary degree. Those degree are gifts. Obama should be gracious enough to refuse the offer or show some humility. He is looking more like a person who expects un-deserved entitlements.
Comment posted April 11, 2009 @ 8:59 pm
ASU should make no further comments until all of them have arrived a decision. The nonsense going around on the web was terrible. If I were a student of ASU I would be hiding my head in shame and the students had nothing to do with any of this. MIKE CROW is a over paid fool who has no control over his staff. Out with CROW and find someone who knows how to run a college!!
Comment posted April 13, 2009 @ 10:22 am
How is Obama looking “like a person who expects un-deserved entitlements.”? What has he done? This ASU's blunder, not his. BTW, I'm confident our president will do the right thing. Jeez!
Comment posted April 13, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
It's stupid for ASU to diss President Obama the way they have. An honorary degree would do far more for ASU then it would do for the president. After all. it's just ASU. Not to bright, I understand cowboys often shoot themselves in the foot.
Comment posted April 13, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
How is Obama looking “like a person who expects un-deserved entitlements.”? What has he done? This ASU's blunder, not his. BTW, I'm confident our president will do the right thing. Jeez!
Comment posted April 13, 2009 @ 7:29 pm
It's stupid for ASU to diss President Obama the way they have. An honorary degree would do far more for ASU then it would do for the president. After all. it's just ASU. Not to bright, I understand cowboys often shoot themselves in the foot.
Comment posted September 29, 2009 @ 9:47 am
I'll back again for sure, thanks for great article :D
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