Short Stuff: Honorary Degrees

What's perfect about short stuff is we can explain everything you need to know about honorary degrees and like twelve minutes, we can explain it in one second. Marketing. Yeah, that's kind of that's kind of true, but it is a little more interesting than that. Uh, let's talk about the history, because not all universities give honorary degrees um very this The University of Virginia uv A, m I T, Stanford,

and Cornell do not give honorary degrees um. William uh Barton Rogers, founder of m I T, said they are unfriendly to true literary advancement and of spurious merit and noisy popularity, and William Barton Rogers had graduated u v A, so that's where he was kind of located with the idea that you shouldn't have, you shouldn't give away doctorates. And uv A was founded by Thomas Jefferson, who was the one who put that ban on him, right, but

he accepted an honorary doctorate from Harvard. It's a bit of a double standard, probably not the only double standard Thomas Jefferson's ever ever been involved with. Yeah, but here's the secret, Well, it's not a secret at all. Here's the very plain truth that everyone knows about honorary degrees. Since the beginning of time, they have been used. Two. They say, a to reward donors who have given money, sometimes to bring in celebrities for appeal for like media

appeal for graduation ceremonies and such like that. But it's really just for whatever reason, it's a way to get some press by acknowledging someone that you think as a university somewhat aligns with your values as a university. Right. Yeah, Ultimately that's the goal is to it's not just somebody's but somebody who is doing something that your university values or everybody can get behind, right, Yeah. And it started

in Europe, not even here in the US. No, no um over at Oxford, I believe the first one was handed out to a guy named lionel Um. That's a pretty good fifteenth century name. It was given out to him. He was an influential bishop and he he got his honorary doctorate unbidden. It was a bit of a surprise. From what I understand is just kind of showed up at his house and they say, so congratulations. Also totally unrelated, we were thinking that you might come be chancellor of

the university. Now since you're a doctor, all al right, I can do that. I can bring some of my wealthy connections with me to to UM to Oxford, which by the way, was about four hundred years old by this time. In four so they were the first one to confer an honorary degree. And they kicked off a grand tradition that is basically just kind of waxed and waned throughout the years, but mostly waxed in in enthusiasm

and abuse, I guess is the word I'm looking for. Yeah, King Charles the first speaking of abuse, Uh, he really got honorary degree. Happy he handed up three hundred and fifty Oxford doctorates. Uh, two people that of course supported his court. All within one single year. That's a lot. That's a lot. Um, it's almost one a day by my calculation, almost took off Christmas and Thanksgiving? Right, oh wait Thanksgiving? Uh not then no, maybe all Saints Day.

So um, King Charles the first was the first to abuse it. He was far from the last. Um. By the nineteenth century, there were so many degrees being handed out left and right, honorary degrees, that they actually had a depressing effect on the importance of actual doctorates that

were being earned, which is a big problem. Right and um the the president of the Northeastern Dental Association, who's typically a mouthpiece for um morality and in direction in academia, um famously warned in that the most dangerous, delusive, debauching and degrading the four d S thing in American educational life is the practice of granting unearned degrees. It's pretty harsh. It was very harsh, but you know, and the guy

was obviously hysterical. But but it does get across, get across this point that that it was it was getting a little a little much I guess was the point by the nineteenth century, and it's calmed down tremendously, especially

here in the States, but it's still going on. It just seems to be a little a little less problematic than I think it was before, because at some point somebody said, okay, all right, let's just let's just yes, you can keep giving out degrees, but people who are getting these honorary degrees do not attempt to use them like they're legitimate. And that seems to change the course of things. Yeah, alright, so let's take a break. We'll talk a little bit about how this happens. Who picks

these people and some regrettable choices right after this. All right, So it is a big deal to do this. UM, A lot of times it is to get someone like a Jerry Seinfeld at your graduation ceremony. What these doctorates? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, everybody. That was pretty good. UM, I'm trying to sound he sounded like not Jerry Seinfeld, David Brenner probably okay, sure, why not? Uh? And they do say, um, honorary degree serve as a way to

inspire the students graduating that day. So that is, um, that is the reason most people do that, get Conan, get Jerry Seinfeld in there. Uh, and a lot of you know, most schools will have a board that decides this kind of thing, and they need to start well in advance, so typically you'll start like a year out, um, just seeing if the person is interested and if their schedule might ALIGNE. And I don't know if it's um,

it probably works differently at every school. I don't know if it's in writing as a requirement to come to graduation or more like and we'd like to give it to you in person on this date at our football stadium. They're like, come on, that's kind of the deal. As you're supposed to show up. And that's really I think, sort of the unwritten rule. Yeah, because I mean if you go to a college graduation, that's like, I mean, that's the show stopper. That's the reason people sit there

is because there's somebody very right. Yeah, it is very very boring. Um, it's just like can't you just like email this to these people? Um? There there there should be a very um, recognizable and or inspirational and or funny person speaking at a decent graduation ceremony. And it doesn't necessarily have to be a celebrity. UM. They do still give these two like big donors. But I think that that means that you have more of a mountain to climb to impress people because you're still expected to

give like amazing caliber remarks at the commencement exercises. Yeah, and when you teased before the break about hey, everyone like you understand that you're not a real PhD or god forbid, a medical doctor. Um. That's the thing is like they know they're not. But there have been some notable people that have called themselves doctor of whatever after they got this. UM. Florida Atlantic University takes it very seriously.

In their rules. They say, in no instance will the recipient of an honorary doctorate from f A you represent the award as being an earned doctorate or have earned academic credential of any kind. This award does not entitle the recipient to use the title of doctor or a pen PhD or any other earned degree designation after his or her name. And UM. Basically they say at the end, like if we get you doing this too, we could take it away. We're gonna take it away. We're gonna

take this meaningless of paper right away from you. Don't even register at your hotel under doctor Bryant, which I haven't been known to do. Don't even don't even have your wife call you doctor, because we'll find out. Yeah, because we're listening. So um, it's not just Florida Atlantic

University takes it seriously. There is a Grove City College professor UM psychology professor Warren Throckmorton, who apparently one day realized that some general funding was about to run out, and he did a survey of university policy statements about the use of UM doctorates, of of of honorary doctorates, and basically to a to a university, it's like, let's just be clear here, this actually doesn't mean that you are a doctor of anything or that you have a PhD.

Do not let us catch you using this. This is a this is a big deal because again, back in the nineteenth century, they were handing out UM m D s uh basically everything, and people were like, yeah, call me, call me Dr Dangerfield, you know, um, and it was it was a big problem. So now they seem to have it under under control, although there have been some people in recent years that still said, now whenever you gave me a doctorate. I'm gonna use doctor. I don't

care what you think of me, because I'm my Angelou. Yeah, I'm a gift to the world. Ben Franklin did that after getting degrees from Oxford and University of St. Andrews. And like you said, with My Angelou, it's like one of those things where you know, it's not super cool, but who's gonna go tell my Angelou what to do? Nobody? Nobody.

They'll get a palm in their face. Yeah. I mean I can imagine her speaking in that great voice of hers, and like I would just shrink, right, you know, I was about to dry do with my angel but there's no way you would not rise. You would shrink. Look at the shrink. Uh. And then there have been some very regrettable and rescinded PhD s honorary PhDs over the year. Um. Of course, Bill Cosby has many, many of these, and they were I think probably all taken away, yeah, I believe,

including from his alma mater temple. But the first one was Yale. With with Yale, he became the first in three hundred years to have their his honorary degree taken away at least by Yale University. But yeah, everybody started following suit after that. Yeah, there's a few more uh legendary uh late DJ from England, Jimmy Seville. Oh, he's a terrible he was terrible human because it was exposed later in his life that he was one of the most prolific pedophiles in the history of Britain. They took

away his honorary degree. Um Oscar Pistorius away? Um who else Donald Trump had one rescinded from whom university? You say that as if it's a real thing. Um. I had it written down, but I can't find it now. But he got an honorary degree that was taken away while he was running for president because of anti Muslim remarks. And they were like, no, we're taking that back. It's cool. Yeah, and there's there's more and more. I don't Oh, I could listen to these all day. Well, I think we

should campaign to get them from our own alma mater. Well, you know, a m somebody wrote in from an unnamed they not by us, but they wouldn't name what college they work at, but it's in Canada, and they said they do honorary degrees up there too. And I believe it was that she said that she was working to get us honorary degrees. So fingers crossed, yes, Um, I will make fun of these up until and including when I have one. Okay, that's a deal. I'm going to

hold you to that. Well, I guess that's it for honorary degrees. We got this article from how Stuff Works, so you can go check it out if you like, and in the meantime, short stuff out. Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows