Just to ask a blaringly obvious and exceedingly uncomfortable question for the UMass muckety-mucks:
Are you really, still going to give Andy Card an honorary degree? I understand, being the President’s chief of staff is — all things being equal — a major accomplishment and perhaps worthy of recognition. But gosh, don’t you think this guy has a lot of baggage?
In addition to helping “market” this completely unnecessary and criminal war with blatant falsehoods, now Card is said to have attempted to lobby then-AG Ashcroft in the intensive care unit, to get him to sign off on the totally-freakin’-illegal NSA wiretapping program.
Seriously, UMass, can this thing possibly come off well at all? Is there no one more deserving of the institution’s recognition? Who’s next? John Poindexter? Hey, maybe Robert McNamara’s available — at least he’s a little bit reflective about his past.
peter-porcupine says
d2yd says
He was a state rep. for 4 terms. That’s outstanding service to be sure. I don’t know if UMass awards honorary degrees based on that alone but if so, let’s open up this playing field. I have a few former reps I’d like to commend.
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Until then, and as an alum, you can be SURE UMass will not see a cent of my money. Annual giving? Alum Club? Forget about it.
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Not. A. Cent.
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And you can rest assured I will encourage all my alum friends to do the same. I will not contribute to a university that rewards such disgraceful and vile abuse of public trust. I’m appalled and revolted. Shame on that university.
centralmassdad says
When I’m told that more taxes are required to support higher education, and urge my reps to vot NO.
davemb says
The one positive thing I have heard about him, and what may have motivated the nomination for the degree, is that he has been very helpful in the political maneuvering needed to build a microwave telescope in Mexico, a project led by the UMass astronomy department. Presumably his efforts on this were largely as White House chief of staff, given the timeframe, rather than in state service.
noternie says
I’m embarrassed by it, but forgive me if I can’t summor the moral outrage to mount a protest over an “honorary degree.”
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Maybe they can guilt him into raising some money for the school.
afertig says
except to say that the person getting an honorary degree–at any University–is supposed to represent the values the university hopes it has instilled in the graduating class. I hope Card’s breathtaking disregard for the law isn’t a value that UMass holds dear.
charley-on-the-mta says
Sure, big deal. So why do honorary degrees at all? Because they’re supposed to confer some kind of prestige on both the recipient and the giving institution. Prestige, after all, is the currency of universities-as-institutions, after all — an intangible thing that leads to very tangible things.
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Sure, it’s symbolic, but that doesn’t mean it’s meaningless.
raj says
…is just marketing on the part of a university to get people to come to the graduation ceremony. The honoree gives a speech, gets a certificate (the certificate being the inducement for the guy to give a speech), and that’s about it. It’s silly and meaningless.
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On the other hand, if the students and professors want to protest the person to whom the “degree” is being “awarded,” they should do what protesters did in the 1960s and particularly the 1970s: stand up quietly, and turn around, with their backs towards the stage. Professors (who have tenure, of course) in attendance can do the same thing.