Our society has a wide variety of “honors.” Some follow a predetermined path; you accomplish this to obtain that. Others, you might understand it, or you might not. Additionally, some things are pure chance, such as hitting the Intertops Poker Bonus Mega Jackpot.
Many institutions provide “Honorary Degrees” for various reasons; however, recently, there have been requests to revoke these distinctions (from current students, previous students, and Hollywood elites). Should colleges eliminate these awards? What about removing genuine degrees, as some elites in Hollywood have requested to be done? Should colleges take their advice?
Honors that have a set path earned educational degrees
You complete your studies for 12 years without missing a beat, earning the honor of a High School Diploma.
If you are 16 years or older without a high school diploma, you may be awarded a GED (General Education Degree), considered parity with a high school diploma legally. The criteria vary between states. The list of requirements for Illinois is shown below, but the standards for each state vary:
- 17 years of age and older and formally withdraw from an official school
- A resident of Illinois for at least 30 days
- US Constitution test
- State Constitution test
- Mathematical Reasoning
- Reasoning Through Language Arts
- Social Studies
- Science
He is earning an Associate of Science or Arts after two years of college or university study (depending on the major).
After four years of college or university study, you can get a bachelor’s degree in the arts or sciences (depending on the major).
You can obtain a master’s degree in the arts or sciences after studying for an additional 1 1/2 to 2 years (Master of Science, Master of Art).
An additional four to six years are needed to obtain a Ph.D. (plus the time to complete your thesis). This comes after receiving a BA or BS degree.
In addition to earning a BS or BA, studying to become a lawyer requires an additional three years of education.
After completing your undergraduate education, you will need to study for 6 to 10 years to become a doctor, depending on whether you want to become a general practitioner or a specialist.
But in the end, you attend a college or university, study the subject matter, acquire college credits, and gain a degree. Once you have received your degree, you own it forever. You cannot take it away. It is up to each individual if they stay current with changes in their area and continue learning about it. But a degree that has been achieved remains a degree.
Certificates of study
Private businesses have started issuing “Certificates” recently. Microsoft Certificates are a couple of well-known instances. The adage “Microsoft gives, and Microsoft takes” is true. You spend a year at school. You pass each of Microsoft’s prerequisite exams. Your certificate is earned. Microsoft then informs you that your certificate is no longer valid. Really? What value do your “credentials” actually have if Microsoft can remove them with a finger?
Microsoft Windows “user interface” has evolved, but has the fundamental idea behind how an operating system functions changed? Has the world changed sufficiently to imply that a Microsoft “Honor” recipient from ten years ago meant “nothing”? That it is worthless?
Let’s phrase it differently. Laws alter. If some laws have changed since a lawyer studied law 40 years ago, are they no longer considered lawyers? There are new laws. Some rules have been repealed.
Additionally, several laws have changed. Do we tell a lawyer that they must return to school and learn how to practice law from scratch because “times have changed”? Not at all, we. Even though medicine has undergone significant transformation over the past 40 years, we still do not treat doctors similarly.
However, private businesses are permitted to place time restrictions on their credentials and state that earning a certificate over ten years is equivalent to never earning it.
Academy awards
The Academy Awards also referred to as the Oscars, are honors given to the American and international cinema industries for artistic and technical achievement.
Only one award has ever been revoked in Academy history. That was the 1969 Best Documentary honor presented to Young Americans before it was discovered that the movie was produced in 1967 and was therefore ineligible. Oscar rejecters include Marlon Brando and Dudley Nichols.
Many individuals have demanded that Will Smith’s Academy Award, which he received for his contributions to the film business, be revoked. Because Chris Rock made a joke about Will Smith’s wife’s hairdo, Will Smith smack him. Chris Rock chose an extremely short hairstyle since he was unaware that Will Smith’s wife had a medical problem. He didn’t realize that he was “telling a joke,” And he didn’t think it would be taken seriously.
Will Smith was “punished” by the Academy Awards by being prohibited from physically or virtually attending any Academy Award ceremonies for ten years. Indirectly, he is most likely no longer eligible to get any other honors for the following ten years. Will Smith accepts his “penalty” and the fact that he “behaved in bad faith.”
Although the Academy Awards committee did not strip him of his “honor,” he was undoubtedly penalized and is now “paying the price” for his “crime.”
What is College Honorary Degrees?
The honorary degree is one of a college’s highest accolades and is meant to recognize someone with a long history of notable accomplishments.
It is different from actually receiving a BS, BA, MS, BA, or Ph.D. from the same institution or university since no academic requirements are necessary to earn an Honorary Degree from a college or university.
The “Dr.” prefix is not used on a person’s name even if they have an “Honorary Doctorate Degree,” as they have not met the academic standards necessary to use that title in an official capacity.
Colleges and Universities taking away Honorary Degrees
The University of Oxford opted not to grant Margaret Thatcher an honorary degree in 1985 as a deliberate snub in opposition to her reductions in support for higher education. All past prime leaders who received an Oxford education received this honor.
The Long Island University campus of Southampton College, which is now a part of Stony Brook University, conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Amphibious Letters to Kermit the Frog in 1996. I can think of many contemporary “leaders” with whom Kermit would “win” an argument. In addition, Kermit is a better reporter than many of the so-called reporters in today’s world, but that is a whole other topic.
Due to accusations and lawsuits of sexual assault, more than 50 honorary degrees given to Bill Cosby have been revoked.
President Donald Trump has had several honorary degrees revoked by universities, and Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s attorney, had a degree from Middlebury College withdrawn as well.
Lehigh University’s board of trustees decided to revoke the honorary degree it gave Trump in 1988 on Friday. Lehigh University is a small university in Pennsylvania.
Hours later, the Staten Island, New York-based private university’s board of trustees followed suit and voted to revoke Trump’s honorary degree, which it had granted him in 2004.
Although it’s considerably more difficult for a college to withdraw an earned degree, University of Pennsylvania alums are lobbying the institution to strip Trump of his bachelor’s degree, which the president obtained in 1968, by threatening to withhold donations.
In response to the lawyer’s call for a “trial by battle” in a speech at the “Save America” march outside the Capitol last Wednesday, Vermont’s Middlebury College revoked the honorary degree it had granted Giuliani in 2005 on Tuesday.
Giuliani received an honorary degree from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, in 2015. Drexel University and The Citadel have yet to comment on whether Giuliani will forfeit the honorary degrees they bestowed upon him.
Summary
Would “winning an Academy Award” still signify anything if they could be revoked as “simply” as these institutions are revoking these “Honorary Degrees”?
However, unless you’re talking about a person who has acquired the academic knowledge that one would typically receive by attending college, “Honorary Awards” are meaningless, in my opinion.
What value does an “Honor,” “Certificate,” or “Degree” have if they can all be revoked just as simply as they can be awarded?
Nobody can deny that a person who attends a community college for 12 to 14 months obtains an official Certificate or Degree. Therefore, it cannot be taken away from you once you acquire or are given it. However, Microsoft can revoke your “Microsoft Certificate” with a “timelimit” or a “snap of the finger” after you’ve studied for 12 to 24 months. So, since it can be taken away, does it matter in the end?
A college degree that has been acquired honestly cannot be revoked. However, if the values and conditions of society alter ten to twenty years after an honorary degree was “granted” (because of those values and situations at the time), can it then be revoked? Then, is that “Honorary Degree” anything more than a piece of paper to wipe your behind with?
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