ASU to honor Obama with scholarship, but still no degree

[azmouse]

http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2009/04/11/20090411obama-ON.html


Arizona State University is taking a different approach to honoring this year's commencement speaker, President Barack Obama.

The university on Saturday announced in a statement it will name and expand its most important scholarship program in Obama's honor.

The scholarship program will be called the President Barack Obama Scholars. It will provide financial assistance to thousands of students.
The university received much criticism for not planning on giving Obama an honorary degree.

****

Also read: ASU earns advanced degree in backpedaling

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/EJMontini/


Awarding an honorary degree to a commencement speaker is not news.

NOT awarding an honorary degree IS news, however. Particularly if the snubbed speaker is the president of the United States.

This grammar-school concept was somehow lost on the academic titans who run Arizona State University. As a result, ASU President Michael Crow has spent the past several days earning an advanced degree in backpedaling while his university became a whipping boy and a laughing stock in the national media.

On May 13, President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address at Arizona State University. He will not be awarded an honorary degree, as will happen a few days later when he speaks to graduates at Notre Dame.

When I found out about this last week through an article in ASU's student newspaper, “The State Press,” I thought that maybe it was a mistake. An oversight. Even a joke. But, no.

ASU spokeswoman Sharon Keller is quoted in the “State Press” as saying, “Because President Obama's body of work is yet to come, it's inappropriate to recognize him at this time.”


(more at the websites)

[BlooInBloo]

1. Here's everybody who ASU thinks is more qualified than Obama....

Frederick M. Irish May 28, 1940
Arthur John Matthews May 28, 1940
Charles A. Stauffer May 22, 1951
Samuel Henry Morris May 26, 1953
Ira Dawson Payne May 26, 1953
Abraham Lincoln Krohn May 24, 1955
Arthur Ervin Smith May 24, 1955
Alfred Knight May 29, 1956
Harvey Leslie Taylor May 29, 1956
Daniel Earl Noble May 28, 1957
Howard Pyle May 28, 1957
Walter Reed Bimson May 27, 1958
John Cromwell Lincoln May 27, 1958
Carl Sauer May 27, 1958
Carlos P. Garcia June 25, 1958
Eugene Collins Pulliam May 26, 1959
Carl Hayden Nov. 14, 1959
John Robert Murdock May 31, 1960
Barry Morris Goldwater May 30, 1961
George W. Romney June 5, 1962
Linton Elias Grinter June 5, 1962
Walter Early Craig June 4, 1963
Lynn Meade Laney June 4, 1963
Harvey Harlow Nininger June 4, 1963
Lillian Moller Gilbreth May 26, 1964
Julius Charles Wetzler May 26, 1964
Stewart Lee Udall June 1, 1965
George Fuller Miller June 1, 1965
John Alfred Hannah May 27, 1966
James Bryon McCormick May 27, 1966
Harold David Richardson May 26, 1967
Robert Jeffrey Hannelly May 26, 1967
Karl Clayton Leebrick May 26, 1967
Lewis Judah Ruskin June 4, 1968
Harlan Cleveland June 4, 1968
John Hope Franklin June 3, 1969
Frank Borman June 3, 1969
Charles Stewart Mott Jan 13, 1970
Ernest J. Hopkins June 2, 1970
George Homer Durham June 1, 1971
Richard A. Harvill June 1, 1971
Arthur B. Schellenberg June 1, 1971
Pablo Casals Mar 30, 1972
Raul H. Castro June 2, 1972
O.D. Miller June 2, 1972
Paolo Soleri May 18, 1973
Ernest W. McFarland May 18, 1973
Paul Rappaport May 17, 1974
Hugh Downs May 17, 1974
Herbert G. Fales May 16, 1975
Robert W. Galvin May 16, 1975
Mae S. Talley May 14, 1976
John J. Rhodes May 14, 1976
Louise Lincoln Kerr May 13, 1977
Bart Jan Bok May 19, 1978
Henry Eyring May 19, 1978
David C. Lincoln May 18, 1979
Erma Bombeck May 16, 1980
Vincent Persichetti May 16, 1980
Paul L. Singer May 16, 1980
Robert Penn Warren April 21, 1980
Philip C. Curtis May 15, 1981
Herb and Dorothy McLaughlin May 15, 1981
Steve Allen May 14, 1982
Fredi Chiappelli May 14, 1982
James Dickey May 14, 1982
Alan duBois May 14, 1982
Mstislav Rostropovich Aug. 6, 1982
Martha Graham Oct. 17, 1982
Tom Chauncey May 15, 1983
G.M. Sollenberger May 15, 1983
Sandra Day O'Connor May 11, 1984
James William Creasman May 11, 1984
Leontyne Price March 8, 1985
Edward F. Albee May 17, 1985
William A. Fowler May 17, 1985
Northurp H. Fry May 17, 1985
Kathryn K. Gammage May 17, 1985
William G. Payne May 17, 1985
Edward J. Dwight, Jr. May 16, 1986
Sylvia Porter May 16, 1986
John I. Yellott Aug. 8, 1986
William Reilley Nov. 7, 1986
Henry Cisneros Dec. 19, 1986
Frank Snell May 15, 1987
Gerald Wasserburg May 15, 1987
Virginia Galvin Piper May 15, 1987
Mo Udall Aug. 7, 1987
Kax Herberger Aug. 7, 1987
Edson W. Spencer Dec. 18, 1987
Robert S. Dietz May 13, 1988
Robert J. Eggert Aug. 5, 1988
Jovita R. Salonga Dec. 16, 1988
Art Buchwald Dec. 16, 1988
Walter Cronkite May 12, 1989
Lorraine Frank May 12, 1989
William Kajikawa Aug. 5, 1989
Pearl Bailey Dec. 22, 1989
Rabbi Albert Plotkin Dec. 22, 1989
Yuan T. Lee May 11, 1990
G. Robert Herberger May 10, 1991
Frank X. Gordon Dec. 8, 1991
Cesar Chavez May 11, 1992
Tony Hillerman May 11, 1992
Alan Pritsker May 11, 1992
Willard Pedrick May 11, 1992
Marvin Morrison Aug. 11, 1992
Karsten Solheim Dec. 18, 1992
Louise Solheim Dec. 18, 1992
Daniel Nagrin Dec. 18, 1992
Dwight Patterson May 11, 1993
Jesse Jones May 11, 1993
Polly Rosenbaum May 11, 1993
Edward Carson Aug. 10, 1993
Paul Elsner Dec. 14, 1993
Rose Mofford May 11, 1994
Herman Chanen May 11, 1994
Keith Turley Aug. 5, 1994
Virginia Ullman Aug. 5, 1994
Maxine Marshall Dec. 14, 1994
Jonathan Marshall Dec. 14, 1994
Margaret Gisolo Dec. 14, 1994
Edward Bud Jacobson May 14, 1995
Rita Dove May 14, 1995
Ernest Boyer May 14, 1995
Florence Nelson Aug. 10, 1995
William S. Shover May 10, 1996
Gary L. Tooker May 10, 1996
Frank J. Sackton Aug. 9, 1996
Chang-Lin Tien Dec. 20, 1996
John F. Long Dec. 20, 1996
Paul J. Fannin May 16, 1997
Jack W. Whiteman May 16, 1997
Newton Rosenzweig Aug. 8, 1997
John P. Frank Dec. 19, 1997
Craig R. Barrett May 15, 1998
Wm. Polk Carey Aug. 7, 1998
Norman William Fain Dec. 18, 1998
Leon Howard Sullivan Dec. 18, 1998
Eddie Basha May 14, 1999
Raul Yzaguirre May 14, 1999
Alfredo Gutierrez Dec. 17, 1999
Craig E. Weatherup Dec. 17, 1999
Barbara McConnell Barrett May 11, 2000
Rudy E. Campbell May 11, 2000
Nadine Severns Carson Aug. 4, 2000
Lamonte H. Lawrence Aug. 4, 2000
L. Roy Papp Dec. 14, 2000
Marilyn A. Papp Dec. 14, 2000
L. William Seidman Dec. 14, 2000
Alice Wiley Snell May 10, 2001
Richard Berlin Snell May 10, 2001
Robert H. Johnson Aug. 31, 2001
Delbert Ray Lewis Dec. 31, 2001
Jewell McFarland Lewis Dec. 31, 2001
Jerry Colangelo May 9, 2002
Rex G. Maughan May 9, 2002
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

[rurallib]

2. Remember those stories of future chief Justice Rehnquist sitting outside the polls

with a baseball bat to "remind" black voters that they weren't welcome?
Looks like some things in Arizona never change.
Unless Obama can take the super bowl away from Phoenix like the NFL threatened to do over MLK Day, he won't get an honorary degree.
=================================================
The young Rehnquist began his legal career as a Republican functionary by obstructing African-American and Hispanic voting at Phoenix polling locations (“Operation Eagle Eye”). As Richard Cohen of The Washington Post wrote, “e helped challenge the voting qualifications of Arizona blacks and Hispanics. He was entitled to do so. But even if he did not personally harass potential voters, as witnesses allege, he clearly was a brass-knuckle partisan, someone who would deny the ballot to fellow citizens for trivial political reasons -- and who made his selection on the basis of race or ethnicity.” In a word, he started out his political career as a Republican thug.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-dershowitz/telling-the-truth-about-c_b_6844.html
=================================================

[Arkana]

3. Obama should take it, wipe his balls with it, write "I graduated from Harvard,

you racist rightwing fucks", and fax it back to them.

[iamthebandfanman]

4. lol

can we maybe add a 'boom baby!' somewhere in there ?

[azmouse]

5. I get the feeling this was more political than racist

with this being McCain's state (excuse me...that makes me want to :puke: ) and Pres Obama beating the stuffing out of him at the polls in Nov.

[Karenina]

6. When I first came upon this story, that old canard

"He's not qualified" left a welt on my psychic face... I felt the intended sting. Maybe you can relate...

[azmouse]

7. I'm not saying that racism doesn't factor into this at all.

I just think the main reason is political.

[Karenina]

8. I'm with you there.

It's just AMAZING to me that the "committee" lives in such a bubble-land that NO ONE even considered... :rofl: