Robert G. Mugabe’s honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst is under renewed threat. Mr. Mugabe, the autocrat clinging to power in Zimbabwe, received the honor in 1986, when he was still fairly well regarded as a leader of the country’s struggle for independence and black-majority rule.

A generation later, Mr. Mugabe is an international pariah, his country is in economic ruins, human-rights abuses by his government are legion, and his regime is trying by various means to thwart the apparent victory, in elections this spring, of the opposition party.

Last year UMass trustees rebuked Mr. Mugabe but declined to revoke his degree, saying that they had no procedure for rescinding such an honor. Now, according to today’s Boston Globe, a leading state lawmaker has reiterated a call for the degree to be revoked.

In a letter dated last Friday, the lawmaker, Rep. Kevin J. Murphy, said he planned to bring up the matter at the UMass board’s meeting in June. And the Globe quoted a UMass spokesman as saying that the lack of a precedent may no longer be an obstacle to board action.

The University of Edinburgh revoked its honorary degree to Mr. Mugabe last year. —Andrew Mytelka