Henry Gamble, News Editor—

At the May 13 commencement ceremony, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, who most notably served as Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, will be awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters for his commitment to advancing human rights, justice and development.

In fact, every commencement speaker who speaks at Denison University is awarded an honorary degree. 

Presented by the University’s Board of Trustees, the degree is conferred upon a recipient who has an established relationship with Denison with a commitment to working with the University, a dedication to the values of the liberal arts and whose work has had a significant impact in society. 

The tradition of bestowing honorary degrees is one which has existed for considerable time at Denison, with just a few of the many notable recipients including renowned astronomer Carl Sagan, author and activist Coretta Scott King, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, writer and journalist Connie Schultz and professor and writer Deirdre McCloskey.

While awarded by the Board, the process of nomination, consideration and selection involves the campus as a whole.

Any member of the Denison community can submit a nomination, which is first reviewed by the Honorary Degrees Committee of the Board of Trustees. 

The Committee is composed of at least three trustees, four members of the faculty (one from each academic division of the University (Humanities, Fine Arts, Sciences and Social Sciences)), and the Junior Co-Governors of the Denison Campus Governance Association.

For Dr. Catherine Dollard, the Senior Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, and convener of the Committee, the voting structure of the Committee is unique because “it’s reflecting that the impetus for a degree can come from anywhere in the community. So the community should be fully represented.” 

The Committee then votes for or against an elaboration of the nomination, which if approved, moves to a vote of the general faculty, which is composed of the teaching faculty and all administrators. If confirmed, the nomination is sent back for a vote by the full Board and then the conferral of the degree is delegated to the President’s Office. 

While every commencement speaker is awarded a degree, there are also degrees awarded to other recipients honored at commencement, and even outside of the ceremony. 

There are a multitude of types of degrees awarded such as Doctor of Humane Letters, Doctor of Divinity, Doctor of Fine Arts, and Doctor of Social Sciences to name a few.

The Committee is unique in its composition, being the only committee to have non-Board voting members. For member Dr. Charles St-Georges, who teaches Spanish and is the Director of Queer studies at Denison, this diversity of perspectives is one of the reasons he ran for a position on the Committee. 

As a first generation college student, and a newcomer to the world of the liberal arts and queer voice, Dr. St-Georges said he wanted to further expand the representation and the outlook of the Committee. 

The process of degree nomination and designation has not always been the same. In fact, it was modified as recently as 2016. The current guidelines promote a greater facility in nominating a candidate, as well as an increased focus on a forwards-facing partnership with the University. 

Dollard embodied this sentiment when she explained that “these guidelines have the potential to be more forward-looking about cultivating that relationship. Although honorary degrees are also, by their nature, backward-looking because you’re reviewing someone’s accomplished methods.”   

The revisions to qualifications and changes of the procedural workings of awarding an honorary degree has contributed to the furthering of connections with recipients such as Connie Schultz, who was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters at the Class of 2022’s commencement ceremony. 

For Dr. Jeffrey Masten, a Trustee member of the Committee who is also a Professor of English and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Northwestern University, helping to “celebrate the role that many of the degree recipients have played in the education of Denison students is part of what makes work on the Committee important.”