“moderate language?”

“Should the University fail to comply with their requests, the students plan to protest the degree by distributing armbands and turning their backs on her as she is awarded her degree.”

Right…

The University administration has a nasty habit of announcing the honorees when its too late for anyone to react. Last year they pulled the same trick with Paul Harvey who advocated using nukes in Iraq. The University also honored HUD secretary Al Jackson a few years ago even though it was well known that he was a phony and just a buddy of George W. Others have made the point that Ms. Schlafly should be able to speak on campus but not be honored.

But I’m more interested in the process which resulted in her selection. For the first time that I can remember (I was an undergraduate in 1966) the University has a supersecret committe whose names the University will not disclose. (Reminds me of “double secret probation” in Animal House). If the award can be defended as a legitimate grant of a degree by an academic institution the University should disclose the names of the committe members and let them defend it.

My suspicion though, based on several communications with University faculty members and administratiors, is that Ms. Schlafly recently made a large donation to the University and this is a payback. If that is the case why not simply admit it? Maybe its not so bad if we have people whose philosophies are in direct oppsoition to the principles of diversity which WU has facilitated over the past half century give money to WU. But just say so. And if we are going to become an honorary degree mill let’s use our engineeeing school to spam everyone-If someone is going to make money off of printing degrees it might as well be WU!

Sure let Washinton U. give Ms Schlafly an honorary degree — remember that Elmo (or was it Kermit?) received his first. Next year Cookie Monster!

Being rude and hostile to Ms Schlafly would probably only reinforce her opinion of universities as loony leftist embarassments. A more appropriate response would be for one of the other speakers, perhaps a valedictorian or professor, to welcome her cordially while explicitly debunking many of her contradictory and sexist views. She is a legitimate source of the views that she represents- no matter how out of step. Better not to give her any ammunition to go trashing WU with. Smother her with positive reasons why her viewpoints don’t represent WU students and leave it at that.

The last ill-mannered leftist students I saw demonstrating and turning their backs on a speaker were at St. Louis University. The distinguished gentleman had flown in from Washington D.C. He walked in with a cane and stood painfully on newly replaced hips to speak, not about his own many activities and accomplishments, but to guide and encourage them in their own futures. He gave his time and effort in many trips like this to other universities for the same purpose.

Fortunately, SLU was not totally embarrassed. There were many polite and truly interested people of all ages in attendance, and Mr. Charlton Heston was loudly applauded.

Mrs. Schlafly is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Washington University, received her J.D. from Washington University Law School, and received her Master’s in Political Science from Harvard University. It’s kind of late for 1,763 students and faculty to protest a degree awarded to Mrs. Shalfly since the university has already awarded her two of them. Talk about failed chronological sequence in securing barn doors.

students…go for it…let’s hope it’s a unanimous back-turn

and bob h…there were a FEW people in the slu auditorium who loudly applauded heston… he was not popular with the EDUCATED young people.

Any other degrees she has earned are irrelevant, regardless of where she earned them. The key word there is earned.
She has not earned an honorary doctorate. Even if you agree with her views, the fact that she earned those other degrees proves that she is a hypocrite. If she practiced what she preaches then she would have been taking second place to a man instead of gathering so many degrees and being so active politically.

As a gay employee of Washington University, this couldn’t scare me more. Bring her to speak? I’ll be in the front row to hear her. Honor her work as consistent with the university’s highest values? I’m worried about my domestic partner benefits.

Recently Phyllis Schlafly inserted herself into the politics of my local school district (Illinois School District 214) by supporting candidates who wish to ban books. Ms. Schlafly does not live in our school district or anywhere remotely close to it. Is that the kind of action WashU plans to reward?