Policy on Awarding Honorary Degrees (T93-060)

Doc. T93-060, as amended
Passed by the Board of Trustees on June 2, 1993
Latest revision: September 17, 2014

Criteria

Candidates for honorary degrees shall be persons of great accomplishment and high ethical standards who exemplify the ideals of the University of Massachusetts. Factors to be considered in awarding degrees include:

National or international intellectual, artistic, cultural, or public service distinction in a particular field.
Outstanding achievement which the University wishes to acknowledge.
Outstanding contribution to the University and/or the Commonwealth.

Eligibility

Consistent with widespread policies generally followed by American public higher education institutions, honorary degrees will not be awarded to current members of the Board of Trustees, faculty, or staff of the University, or to current candidates or holders of federal or state elective office in Massachusetts except under extraordinary circumstances as determined by the Trustees.
Persons holding an honorary degree from one campus of the University are not ineligible to receive a degree from another campus at a later date. However, any person receiving an honorary degree from one campus shall not be so eligible for five years from the date of the initial award. After the expiration of the five year period of ineligibility, nominations are nevertheless discouraged and will be approved only in extraordinary circumstances as determined by the Trustees.

Confidentiality

In accordance with standard practice at American institutions of higher learning, care should be taken to ensure strict confidentiality at all stages of the honorary degree process. In particular, there should be no communication with prospective degree recipients regarding a likely degree until after the Board of Trustees has approved the award. The need for confidentiality was acknowledged by the Legislature when, in subjecting the University to the provisions of the Open meeting law, it allowed the Trustees to consider the award of honorary degrees in executive session.

Procedures

Each campus will establish its own procedure for recommending nominees to the Chancellor. A description of the procedure should be sent to the Secretary for the record. The process should allow for participation by representative groups and individuals on campus, and confidentiality should be preserved at all times.
In the year preceding the Commencement at which the degrees are to be awarded, the President will solicit the names of potential candidates from the Trustees and the Chancellors. Nominations should include biographical information, the reason(s) why the honor should be bestowed, and which campus should award the degree.
Nominations received from sources other than the President and Trustees shall be forwarded by the Secretary to the appropriate Chancellor to be considered under campus procedure.
Honorary Degrees will be considered at the Board’s annual meeting. Following the annual Board meeting at which honorary degree recipients are selected, the Secretary will notify the Chancellors of those candidates who are authorized to be awarded a degree. Except as may otherwise be directed by the Board of Trustees, Chancellors will contact those among the authorized candidates as they see fit and will keep the Board, through its Secretary, informed of whether invitations to receive a degree have been offered, accepted or declined, and of other developments.
Except in extraordinary circumstances, the Chancellors and any Trustee must send their recommendations to the President six months before the event at which the degree is to be awarded. Upon receipt and review by the President the approved nominations will be prepared and mailed to the members of the Committee on Academic and Student Affairs with copies to the President and the appropriate Chancellors. The Committee shall act at a regular meeting or, in extraordinary circumstances, at a special meeting called for the purpose. Upon recommendation by the Committee, the approved nominations will be forwarded to the Board of Trustees.
Except under extraordinary circumstances, no honorary degree will be awarded in absentia or at a place other than a campus of the University. In the event that an individual is not granted a degree in the year for which it was approved, such person shall remain authorized to receive an honorary degree from the campus in question for the next successive two years without further action by the Board of Trustees.

Book Category

Board Policy: Board of Trustees

Amherst Honorary Degree Nomination Procedures

The Director of Commencements oversees the campus honorary degree nominations process, including calling for honorary degree nominations, recruiting committee members, communicating with campus deans and administrators concerning prospective nominations, setting meetings of the nominations committee, gathering biographical profiles, responding to inquiries, etc.
Each year, early in spring semester, an email message is sent from the Chancellor’s Office to all faculty, staff and students on campus inviting them to nominate candidates for honorary doctorates. Nominations are accepted through the end of March, usually one week after the end of spring break, and may be submitted by anyone: faculty, staff, students, alumni, or friends of the University. Nominators are asked to provide a letter that states the reasons why the candidate deserves the degree and a resume or a short published biography of the candidate. Nominees are not informed of the nomination. Nominations may be received at any time during the year, but they are kept on file until the March deadline.
During April and May, the Honorary Degree Advisory Committee meets to consider the nominations received. This committee is purely advisory to the Chancellor who may (or may not) forward the committee’s recommended nominees to the President. Members are asked to do additional research on the nominees, and if they so choose, they can make additional nominations. The Committee will often forward as many as ten names to the Chancellor for consideration. The Chancellor may also forward other nominations to the President, nominations that have not been considered or recommended by the committee.
All committee deliberations and votes are confidential. The nominees forwarded to the President by the Chancellor are also kept confidential.
Members of the Honorary Degree Advisory Committee include the following: the Faculty Senate is invited to name up to three members of the committee, the Alumni Association is invited to name up to two members, The Dean of the Graduate School is invited to name up to two graduate students, and the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs & Campus Life is invited to name up to two undergraduate students to the committee. The Chancellor also may name up to three members. Faculty Senate and Associate Alumni designate their representatives for multi-year terms; all other representatives are named for one year, although the same person may be designated again.
After its deliberations and voting, the Chair of the Advisory Committee usually meets with the Chancellor in June to deliver the recommendations of the committee and to provide any additional background the Chancellor may request concerning them.
The Chancellor reviews the list and may add to or subtract from it. The list is then forwarded to the President.
The President reviews the list and may add to or subtract from it. The list is then forwarded to the Trustees.
The Trustees review the list, add to or subtract from it as they wish, and then vote on the nominees at their November meeting.
The list of nominees approved by the Trustees is then sent back to the campus. (Some honorary degrees may be conferred at special convocations during the year; others may be delayed for up to two years after which they need to be re-approved by the Trustees.)
In December or January, the Chancellor’s Office sends out an honorary degree offer letter to those whose degrees are to be awarded at commencement.
It is a condition of the degree that the person be present to accept it. Not all offers of a degree are accepted—the bigger the name, the more potential for calendar conflicts.
Arrangements for the honorary degree candidate’s visit to campus are made by the Director of Commencements.

Boston Honorary Degree Nomination Procedures

The process for selecting honorary degree recipients begins in the spring semester of each academic year for degrees to be conferred at the June commencement of the following academic year.

The Office of the Chancellor will issue a memorandum to the campus community outlining the process and timetable for making honorary degree nominations. The announcement will include the following profile of qualifications of acceptable nominees:

Candidates for honorary degrees will be persons of great accomplishment and high ethical standards who exemplify the ideals of the University of Massachusetts Boston. Factors to be considered in awarding degrees include:

National or international intellectual, artistic, cultural, or public service in a particular field.
Outstanding achievement that the university wishes to acknowledge.
Outstanding contributions to the university and/or the Commonwealth.

The Provost will appoint a Provost’s Committee on Honorary Degrees, which will receive nominations from the faculty, staff, students, student government organizations, and the UMass Alumni Association. The committee will submit its recommendations to the provost who, after seeking advice from the Faculty Council, will make recommendations to the chancellor. The chancellor, after discussions with the Executive Staff, will make honorary degree recommendations to the president and the Board of Trustees in time for Board action in November of that academic year.

Nominations will be accompanied by biographical information and the reason(s) why the honor should be bestowed.

Strict confidentiality will be maintained at all stages of the process.

Campus procedures will comply with the University of Massachusetts Trustee Policy for awarding honorary degrees Doc. T93-060, as amended February 17, 2005. The Trustee Policy is attached.

Revised: 8/3/2007

Dartmouth Honorary Degree Nomination Procedures

UMass Dartmouth adheres to the policy for awarding Honorary Degrees set forth by the Board of Trustees. Beginning one year from the deadline for submission, the Office of the Provost accepts nominations from campus constituents (Faculty, Staff, Students, Alumni, Donors, etc.). The Office of the Provost solicits nominations via email communications to the campus community throughout the year. All nominations are directed to the Office of the Provost. The nominations are passed from the Office of the Provost to the Office of the Chancellor for review. The nomination requests approved by the Chancellor are sent to the Faculty Senate for final review and approval. Once approved by the Faculty Senate, the Chancellor submits the nominations to President Meehan for consideration by the Board of Trustees.

Updated as of 12/03/2024

Lowell Honorary Degree Nomination Procedures

Administrative Announcement and Honorary Degree Nomination Form is sent to all faculty, staff and students from the Chancellor.
Honorary Degree Candidate: information collected is placed in a binder and forwarded to the University’s Honorary Degree Committee for their review.
Honorary Degree Committee consists of, Chancellor, Executive Vice Chancellor, Provost, Associate Provost, Dean’s of Colleges, Faculty Representative, Senior Class President, Student Government President, Student Trustee and Staff Representative.
Honorary Degree Committee meets in early October to review the Candidates and make the final selection. After the selection has been made a memo from the Chancellor along with the names of the nominees and biographical information is forwarded to the Board of Trustees for their approval.
After approval from the Board has been received a letter from the Chancellor is sent to the potential Honorary Degree recipient.

Chan Medical School Honorary Degree Nomination Procedures

In adherence to T93-060 as amended, candidates for honorary degrees will be identified by the Chancellor or proposed to the Chancellor by the Provost as chair of the commencement committee.
The commencement committee will solicit nominations from faculty, staff and students prior to September 30th of each year.
The commencement committee will review the nominations from the community at large and make recommendations to the Chancellor.
The Chancellor, in consultation with members of the campus senior administration, will make recommendations to the President and the Board of Trustees.

Doc. T93-060, as amended | Honorary Degrees Policy
Passed by the Board of Trustees on June 2, 1993
Revised:
June 5, 1996
February 16, 2005
September 17, 2014