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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ASU Media Relations Director Sharon Keeler says, unlike other universities, the processes for selecting commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients are independent. She says that honorary degrees are given “for an achievement of eminence” and that Obama was not considered for an honorary degree because his body of achievements, at this time, does not fit within that criteria.

I don’t think it really needs to be said, as Teo writes, that getting elected president of the United States — and the first African-American president, at that — seems like quite a substantial achievement.

Really, ASU? Is this really your best P.R. move?

After all, as the Phoenix-area’s East Valley Tribune editorialized:

Barry Goldwater received his honorary degree in May 1961, three years before his Republican nomination for president and only eight years into his three decades as a U.S. senator. Sandra Day O’Connor was similarly recognized just three years in her 25 years on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Do you forget that in 2005, you were Playboy’s No. 1 party school in the country? Granted, you’ve dropped to No. 17 in 2008, according to the Princeton Review — but does that mean you are now above giving an honorary degree to the president?

And I don’t know if you remember, but Arizona had a bit of an image problem just two decades ago, for refusing to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday. After that whole kerfuffle, is this the message The Grand Canyon State wishes to send to the rest of the country — that Obama’s election is an achievement unworthy of recognition?

Update: Sam Stein does some digging and finds that Obama might be a better candidate for an honorary degree if he donated $50 million to ASU.

2nd Update: Stein has more. An ASU official suggests the university might give Obama an honorary degree after he leaves office.

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