Iowa regents adopt new degree-revocation policy, including for honorary degrees

Since Iowa State University initiated the practice in the 1800s, more than 230 honorary degrees have been conferred by the state’s public universities to individuals who demonstrated “extraordinary achievements” — and now the campuses have a uniform policy to rescind them, if necessary.

The Board of Regents last month approved a new “degree revocation policy” affirming the universities’ authority to revoke previously awarded degrees or certificates — including doctorates conferred as honorary degrees to individuals of prestige who haven’t fulfilled traditional degree requirements.

“Honorary degrees previously conferred by a university may be revoked with approval of the university president,” according to the new policy and a summary noting, “While existing federal and state laws and regulations already permit such action, this policy is intended to affirm the procedures to do so and the applicability to honorary degrees.”

The new policy is meant to serve as a backstop to any degree-revocation policies the campuses already have and to loop in honorary-degree holders, according to regents spokesman Josh Lehman, who said he’s unaware of any revocations currently under consideration.

Hundreds honored

The honorary degree process dates to the 15th century in Europe — with the first going to Lionel Woodville in 1478 at Oxford University, according to a history of the tradition by Brandeis University. The first American honorary degree — a doctor of divinity — went to Harvard University President Increase Mather in 1692, although Harvard considers its first true honorary degree recipient to be Benjamin Franklin in 1753.

The first honorary degree within Iowa’s public university system came nearly 150 years ago in 1877, when ISU conferred an honorary master of agriculture to Isaac R. Roberts, who served as farm superintendent for the institution.

The University of Iowa didn’t issue its first honorary degree until 1962, when U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren received an honorary doctor of laws. The University of Northern Iowa issued its inaugural honorary degree in 1975 with a doctor of literature to UNI professor and poet James Schell Hearst.

In total, ISU has issued 154 honorary degrees over 148 years to the likes of James Hilton, ISU president from 1953 to 1965; Norman Borlaug, who earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for developing wheat varieties; and George Washington Carver, a world-renowned plant scientist and ISU’s first African American student.

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In February, the board approved two more ISU honorary degrees to Larry Buss, farmer and retired chief hydrologic engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers; and John “JR” Robinson, an Iowa native “widely recognized as the most recorded drummer in the history of music, with a discography that includes over 10,000 recording sessions for the music, television and film industries.”

“His work can be heard on 60 Grammy-award-winning records, over 200 Billboard Top 100 singles, and 30 No. 1 hit songs,” according to regent documents. “Collectively, the albums he has performed on have sold over 500 million copies and have been streamed over a trillion times on digital platforms.”

The UI has issued 46 honorary degrees to “individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary achievements” like journalist Tom Brokaw, actor Gene Wilder, former Iowa Gov. Robert Ray and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson.

And UNI has issued 31 honorary degrees to people like Christine Grant, who served as founding member and president of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women; the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso; and former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin.

The practice of granting honorary degrees historically has encountered some opposition and controversy — including accusations of swapping doctorates for donations — with institutions like Cornell, Stanford and Rice universities enacting policies against them.

No revocations

Although Iowa’s public universities haven’t revoked any honorary degrees, ISU in recent years has faced calls to remove the names of honorary degree recipients from buildings and plaques on campus.

Following an extensive review, ISU decided in 2023 to keep Carrie Chapman Catt’s name attached to Catt Hall despite accusations from thousands who signed an online petition accusing her of holding “racist, anti-Black, classist, ableist, and xenophobic beliefs.”

Catt — who received an honorary doctor of laws from ISU in 1921 — was praised at that time for being a “distinguished champion of the suffragist and peace movement and organizer of the League of Women Voters.”

An ISU committee also in 2020 was charged with reviewing a bronze rock plaque honoring W.T. Hornaday, who went to ISU in the 1870s before becoming inaugural director of the Bronx Zoo. There, in the 1900s, he curated an exhibit caging a Congolese man in the “Monkey House” with an orangutan.

Interim action was taken to remove the plaque from its public display and put it in the Parks Library Archives — with further action pending.

“No additional action has been taken, and currently no timeline set for naming a review committee,” ISU spokeswoman Angie Hunt told The Gazette.

Hornaday received an honorary degree from ISU in 1903 for being a “world-famed naturalist and zoologist.”

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‘Will not be considered’

The new regent policy allows the campuses to revoke degrees and certificates of all sorts — including honorary degrees — if, following an investigation, a campus “concludes that there is clear and convincing evidence that the recipient did not, in fact, meet all the conditions for conferral of the degree or certificate.”

The campuses each have separate guidelines for conferring honorary degrees — like at the UI, where the honor should recognize extraordinary achievement over an entire career, not just a single achievement.

“Philanthropy may not be the sole or main criterion for awarding an honorary degree, but may be taken into account as a factor when considered by the Honorary Degree Selection Committee,” according to UI policy. “Nominations where philanthropy or the possibility of future endowments are the main focus will not be considered.”

The university also doesn’t consider current employees or elected officials.

“But honorary degrees may be awarded to former employees who left the institution in good standing and former elected officials who meet the criteria.”

ISU’s existing honorary degree policy includes a clause allowing for recision of the honor “if an honorary degree recipient has acted in a manner as to bring the university’s name into disrepute, compromise the public trust, dishonor the university’s standards, or otherwise be contrary to the best interests of the university.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com