 "Photo: cigregor on Flickr")
President Obama wrapped up two of his three commencement addresses for this graduation season on Sunday at Notre Dame, and came out of it with one honorary degree.
In March, Arizona State University declined to endow Obama with an honorary degree (covered by the Huffington Post here and here). Most of the media's confusion and disbelief cited Obama's election as the first black president.
Rev. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, awarded Obama his honorary degree and cited the historic election as partial justification for the distinction.
Obama obviously put a lot of work into winning the presidency and the reverence is certainly well-earned, but the people didn't vote for him just so that he could be named the winner; they voted for him because they are expecting him to do more once he gets there.
Students who have graduated hold degrees because they've earned them -- they've done the work according to the university's expectations. ASU's oft-repeated reason for not honoring him with their degree is that, "...his greatest work is yet to come." That's the expectation they've set for earning a degree as a presidential alumnus.
I wouldn't give Obama a "Certificate of Recognition as Angela Bull's Favorite President" right now, because I have nothing to base it on. Why would you ask an academic institution to have more lenient standards than that?
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