The Arizona State University community is expressing
anger and embarrassment in response to ASU's
decision not to award President Barack Obama an
honorary degree when he gives the commencement
speech there next month. An ASU spokesperson now
confesses, "we blew it," and concedes that the
university likely would have conferred the honorary
degree, but once it became a controversy, ASU
administrators were too worried about appearing
insincere.
When the news hit last week that ASU would not
honor Obama with a customary honorary degree
when he addresses the graduating class, the
Huffington Post asked for people with ties to ASU to
email their reactions. A couple hundred members of
the university's community (students, alumni, staff,
and faculty) submitted their personal thoughts.
Nearly every email expressed shame over the
decision made by their alma mater. One alumnus, Dr.
Neil Francis, wrote from Thailand to say he will no
longer wear his Arizona State University ball cap --
even halfway around the world. Several said that they
did not believe the story when they first heard it: they
thought the story was a satirical news piece or a
holdover from April Fool's Day.
Many Huffington Post readers wrote in to say that they
would be withholding donations. Some said they
would even remove endowments from their wills. The
detrimental effect that this debacle will almost
certainly have on fundraising could not come at a
worse time, since the state legislature has recently
enacted major funding cuts.
