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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 6, 1983)
Cramming or osmosis? Or is it all pointless? During the next week, students sprawled asleep — will be a familiar sight at will be open 24 hours to accommodate out studying — or maybe sprawled out Sterling C. Evans Library. The library late-night studying. Many schools give honors to speakers United Press International Tens of thousands of college degrees are displayed across the nation on the walls of people who never earned them during a four-year course of study. The degrees are honorary. Several thousand are being bes towed this spring. A UPI survey of colleges indi cates many schools bid for big name speakers with such de grees and honorariums. Others frown on the practice. Recipients range from presi dents and premiers to cookbook writers. Consider Charles A. Lind bergh, who flunked out of the University of Wisconsin in 1921. Seven years later his old school gave him an honorary doctor of laws degree in recognition of his 1927 first solo trans-Atlantic flight. Last year. Harvard honored Mother Teresa of India and play wright Tennessee Williams. The year before, Notre Dame singled out President Reagan and Pre mier Pierre Trudeau of Canada. A sampling of honorary de grees from major schools the past few years turns up such names as Boston Pops conduc tor Arthur Fiedler, President Lyndon B. Johnson, artist Geor gia O'Keefe and CBS newsman Mike Wallace. President Reagan's first trip outside the White House after John Hinckley tried to assassin ate him was to receive a degree and speak at Notre Dame. His visit prompted nostalgic refer ences to his role as the "Gip- per," the late Notre Dame foot ball star George Gipp, in the film that Pat O'Brien (also receiving a degree that day) played legen dary coach Knute Rockne. Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Dwight D. Eisenhower all received degrees from Notre Dame while in office. President John F. Ken nedy received the Laetare Med al, the university's highest hon or for a Roman Catholic. Notre Dame's president of 31 years, Rev. Theodore Hes- burgh, has worked for these presidents on national boards. He knows them — and they know that “Notre Dame is a highly visible platform for Catholics in this country," said Richard Conklin, Notre Dame spokesman. Columbia University doesn't use degrees to obtain speakers. Its commencement speaker al ways is the university president. But like Harvard, it wants de gree recipients there for the show. It doesn't announce their names until graduation day. No show, no degree. Degrees often go with the honorarium and travel expenses given the principal commence ment speaker. Competition for speakers can be fierce. It also can be embarrassing when students don't like the choice. Smith College invited U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick to speak and receive an honor ary degree at its May 22 cere monies this year. Students orga nized CROAK — Committee Responsible for Organizing Against Kirkpatrick. They plan ned a silent protest. Kirkpatrick withdrew. She still will receive her de gree, the trustees decided. Colleges and universities, asked for their criteria for such degrees, speak of distinguished careers, outstanding achieve ment, service to humanity and connection with the school or state. They don't like to speak of money. Someone who has contri buted money to the school may be honored, but “it is long after the event" and money is not the deciding factor, said Carleton Whitehead of Reed College in Portland, Ore. Reed typifies schools that pre fer to honor people with a tie to the institution. Among its reci pients has been cookbook writer James Beard, who attended Reed. "I don't want to say people who received honorary degrees have not been generous to the college, but the purpose is to recognize something they have done in society," a Dartmouth spokesman said. The late vice president Nelson Rockefeller, an alumnus, later picked up an honorary degree from Dartmouth. "We don't base honorary de grees on how much someone contributes. We're not playing that game," said Dr. Fred Brown, executive vice-president of Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, Iowa. In 1980 Buena Vista did give a degree to a donor-graduate — unnamed because of a contract between the school and the per son. If the degree was excep tional, so was the gift: $18 mil lion. The University of Rhode Is land insists on ties to the state for degree recipients, except for the commencement speaker. Then it wants someone nation ally known and will pay a mod est honorarium of $500. Neighboring Providence Col lege won't do that. "That puts us under the gun a little bit," Ann Manchester said. She frowned at schools that she said go through a lecture service for speakers who demand a $10,000 fee. "I think that defeats the whole purpose." President Norman Hacker- man of Rice University said his school won't give honorary de grees because "we just don't want to lower the requirements for a degree." Miss Piggy and John Denver enjoy the mountains on “Rocky Mountain Holiday with John Denver and the Muppets,” to air Thursday on ABC. j^Take a Study Break with 'rfdAM Tiff in concert with guest INKS G. Rollie White Coliseum Tickets: , 5 50 , 'S 50 , *7°° MSC Box Office 845-1234 ^1