ASU, part deux

ASU President Michael Crow has issued an apology for what he calls the "confusion" about the university's apparent decision to not award an honorary degree to President Obama when he delivers the commencement address. Crow also said ASU "is naming and expanding its most important scholarship program" in Obama's honor. The statement reads in part:

“I apologize for the confusion surrounding our invitation to President Obama to address ASU students at commencement,” said ASU President Michael M. Crow. “The entire ASU community has been electrified with excitement since we learned of his participation in our commencement ceremony. We hope that the recent discussion of honorary degrees will not detract from the honor and thrill that ASU – and indeed all of Arizona – is experiencing in anticipation of his visit. I am honored, as are our faculty, staff and students, that President Obama will give his first commencement speech as president of the United States at ASU.” 

You can read the Huffington Post take here, (with some background here) as well as comments. HuffPo and Politico ignited an international firestorm of criticism of ASU when they reported this story earlier this week. The original Rogue post raised indigation among readers -- but also hackles in Sparkyville.

The ASU statement goes on:

In recognition of President Obama’s commitment to educational access and to an entire career dedicated to public service, ASU is naming and expanding its most important scholarship program in his honor. Going forward, this program will be called the President Barack Obama Scholars and will offer thousands of students with the greatest financial need the opportunity to go to college.

“It has always been our intention to recognize and honor President Obama's accomplishments during his visit,” said Crow, “but we had not yet determined the best or most appropriate way to do so. Although the focus and attention of the media and others has been on an honorary degree, we never felt that was the only—or even the best—means of honoring his tremendous service to our country. Naming this scholarship program after President Obama that will affect the lives of thousands of students is an honor befitting, not only the president’s exceptional achievements, but also his values as an individual. The President Barack Obama Scholars program will be a legacy that will endure and inspire others for generations to come.”

Crow took particular umbridge at Rogue, writing, "How could you assume a racial bias from a group (ASU) totally dedicated to the opposite and with more track record in our actions and behavior than most organizations." In fact, some commenters on various blogs assumed racial bias. I just thought the honorary degree dis' was amazingly tone-deaf -- especially considering Crow's genuine commitment to diversity, but also Arizona's unfortunate national reputation. It also struck me as odd because Crow is sensitive to ASU's image. All I can guess is that Obama's visit caused considerable pushback from the Kookocracy now ruling Arizona -- especially now that Saint Janet has gone to work for Obama.

ASU faculty and staff received the following from Crow:

Since my appointment we have not awarded honorary degrees to sitting politicians, a practice based on the very practical realities of operating a public university in our political environment. We have not offered degrees to our sitting Senators or our sitting Governors as many universities do.  We have not invited them as university commencement speakers either.

In this case, the historic election of Barack Obama, we invited him as our university commencement speaker, the first in recent memory.  We did that out of recognition of his unique achievements and his deep connection to our mission as a university committed to excellence and access. 

From the beginning we intended to recognize and honor the President, and we will.

I ask all of you to stay focused on the event and honor our graduates and our President.

We are a young and emerging university in a new and politically complex state.  We serve in the most critically important role in higher education in the country, the public focused university.  We perform well in that role and we will continue to do that.

Let's all pull together to make this event successful.

The "politically complex state" line is interesting. Did ASU get a raw deal from the media? You can be the judge. About the kindest angle I can offer is that ASU didn't think the issue through, and was unprepared for the reaction that followed. It's a university that wants to play in the bigs. And with the bigs come situations just like this. International outrage might just trump the Kooks down at the capitol threatening the university over inviting Obama.

Comments

[Emil Pulsifer]

Michael Crow has held office as ASU President since July 1, 2002, when he succeeded Lattie Coor.

In order to evaluate his recent statements regarding ASU policy, it helps to have a list of honorary degrees conferred by ASU during Crow's incumbency:

* John R. Christian Aug. 2, 2002

* Bob Stump Dec. 19, 2002

* Rita R. Colwell May 13, 2004

* Rafael Rangel Sostmann May 13, 2004

* Lawrence Douglas Wilder May 13, 2004

* Peterson Zah May 12, 2005

* Blake Edwards Sep. 23, 2005

* Lord John Browne of Madingley Dec. 15, 2005

* The Right Honourable Kim Campbell Dec. 15, 2005

* Wu Qidi May 11, 2006

* Frank H.T. Rhodes May 11, 2006

* J. Craig Venter May 10, 2007

* Leland Hartwell Dec. 13, 2007

* James J. Duderstadt May 14, 2008

A full list of ASU doctoral degree awards can be found here:

http://graduation.asu.edu/honorary/past

(Note the presence of such "luminaries" as Jerry Colangelo and Eddie Basha).

Several of these names from Crow's watch stand out at once. According to his member profile at the website of the lawfirm Jennings Strauss, John R. Christian is a local tax attorney (also specializing in real estate and trusts) with strong fundraising ties to ASU (note the Community Activities section):

http://www.jsslaw.com/professional_bios/John_R_Christian

Rafael Sostmann has an engineering degree, and is currently president of a multicampus Mexican technical institute, and (according to POLITICO) "had signed a business partnership with ASU".

Blake Edwards directed the Pink Panther movies. I tried to find out why ASU (and Michael Crow) found him worthy of an honorary degree, but the link to the ASU web page announcing that particular award seems to have been removed:

http://www.asu.edu/news/200509/20050923_honoredwards.htm

Several of the others are also interesting choices, but I'm running out of time so I'll leave it here for now.

[todd]

not conferring honorary degrees to sitting politicians seems like a good idea for public universities. What I do not understand is why this simply put forward as the policy instead of the ridiculous claim that Obama doesn't have much of a record right now.

[Linda]

I find it confusing that Dr. Crow puts out this meme that it's been his longstanding policy not to grant honorary degrees to sitting politicians. Yet there was a faculty committee that reviewed Obama's worthiness to receive such a degree. Well, which is it? If Obama was automatically was ineligible, it never should have gone to this committee. I agree this came from caving into the right-wingers, and Crow got burned. What an embarrassment. Glad I went to the UofA.

[Emil Pulsifer]

As far as sitting politicians are concerned, John Browne of Maddingly has been a member of the House of Lords (the upper house of the British parliament) since 2001, yet he was given an honorary doctoral degree by Michael Crow himself in a ceremony on December 15, 2005.

Wu Qidi has held the post of Deputy Minister of Education in the People's Republic of China since 2003 -- not exactly a "politician" in the sense of Lord Browne -- but certainly a political appointee. She was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by ASU in 2006 (also on Crow's watch).