Although Arizona State President Michael M. Crow and the rest of the faculty did not see the need to confer an honorary degree on President Obama, the school still named a scholars program after him, which is an expansion of the university’s most important financial aid program. Universities typically confer an honorary degree on commencement speakers who have reached extraordinary feats in their particular field.  Although many see greatness in our first Black president, it fell on deaf ears with the decision makers for the commencement ceremony at Arizona State University (ASU).   According to ASU, officials, they chose not to confer an honorary degree on this year’s commencement speaker, President Barack Obama, because “his body of work is yet to come.”
ASU Media Relations Director Sharon Keeler said honorary degrees at ASU are conferred “for an achievement of eminence.”
Let’s review a partial list of past conferees,
• The vice minister of education of the People’s Republic of China was given an honorary degree at ASU in May 2006
• Kim Campbell: Canada’s 19th prime minister received an honorary degree in 2005.
• Lawrence Douglas Wilder: The nation’s first African-American governor in Virginia received an honorary degree and delivered the commencement address at ASU in 2004.
• Rita Colwell: A microbiologist, who was the 11th director of the National Science Foundation, received an honorary degree in 2004.
• John Christian: A long-serving lawyer and community activist received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in 2002.
• Jane Dee Hull: Arizona’s first elected female governor received an honorary degree.
• Alfredo Gutierrez: A long time Arizona legislator was given an honorary doctorate in 2000.
• Peterson Zah: The one time president of the Navajo Nation was honored in 2005.
• Rex G. Maughan: The founder, president, and CEO of Forever Living Products and Terry Labs, was honored in 2002.
Forever Living Products, producer of aloe vera and bee products, including nutritional drinks, supplements, skin care products and cosmetics, come on ASU…REALLY?
Barack Obama, the first African- American President of the United States, who developed one of the most diverse and engaged grassroots organizations in the world…U.S. Senator…first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review Constitutional Law Professor, Community Organizer, author of two best sellers…but that’s still not enough for ASU. Maybe, he should be an ASU donor or foreign educator or even in the film industry, like others that ASU has conferred degrees upon.  And let’s not forget John McCain, who also served as commencement speaker and was conferred an honorary degree.  But he never became president, did he?
I was always taught that “tact” was the ability to tell someone exactly how you feel and make them fell comfortable as they go on their way”, well here’s to Barack Obama in his statements at ASU’s commencement.
“I come here not to dispute the suggestion that I haven’t yet achieved enough in my life,” he said. “I come to embrace it, to heartily concur, to affirm that one’s title - even a title like president - says very little about how well one’s life has been led, and that no matter how much you’ve done, or how successful you’ve been, there’s always more to do, more to learn, more to achieve.”
“One thing I know about a body of work is that it’s never finished,” he said. “It’s cumulative. It deepens and expands with every day that you give your best, and give back, and contribute to the life of this nation.”
“That’s what building a body of work is all about,” he said. “It’s about the daily labor, the many individual acts, the choices large and small that add up to a lasting legacy.”
“I learned to never again pick another team over the Sun Devils (ASU) in my NCAA bracket,” he said. “And your university president and board of regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS.”