Honorary Degrees, Commencement Speakers, and the Case of John Ashcroft

PRESS RELEASE
7 May 2009
Kirksville, Missouri
Truman State University Chapter of American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
<aaup.truman.edu>

At its monthly meeting on Friday, 1 May 2009, the Truman State University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) discussed the forum that it sponsored on the subject of granting honorary doctoral degrees. We held this forum on 27 April 2009, in response to the University's recent announcement that the Board of Governors of Truman State University had voted three honorary doctorates and that one of these would be awarded to former U.S. Attorney General, John Ashcroft at the May 9 commencement ceremony, where Ashcroft will also be commencement speaker. (The other two will be awarded later to former University President Charles McClain and posthumously to Gov. Mel Carnahan.)

At our forum faculty, students, and staff of our university raised these questions: Should our university award honorary degrees? Who should choose the recipients? Should the decision be made by the Board of Governors and the University President? Should the faculty as a whole have some say in the matter? Should students be involved? Should the selection process be autocratic and secret, or open and democratic? In addressing these questions, the panel and audience of the forum voiced strong opposition to the choice of Ashcroft as one of Truman's first honorary doctorates; they could not fathom how his career and positions could possibly represent the values of our university. Subsequent to the forum, a student protest movement emerged: they placed an ad in the student newspaper, Index, stating opposition to the University's decision to grant Ashcroft an honorary degree and calling for protest at the May 9 commencement ceremony.

The AAUP meeting on May 1 discussed what action, if any, our chapter should take in response to the forum and subsequent developments. It voted unanimously to submit a formal letter to the University President and Board of Governors: (1) to protest the negligible level of faculty consultation in the decision to award these honorary degrees; and (2) to urge that appropriate governing bodies, ideally Faculty Senate and Student Senate, be formally included in the procedure for nominating and choosing the recipients of any future honorary degrees.

The chapter also decided to urge all participants in the May 9 commencement ceremony simply to follow their own consciences when deciding whether or how to protest. We discussed different forms of protest: standing silently with backs turned; walking out when Ashcroft rises to speak, etc. The student activists have called for a silent protest, refusing to applaud for Ashcroft, instead sitting quietly and holding up the Index ad (or some semblance thereof) when he takes the podium.