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An Associate Degree for Obama

April 30, 2011, 12:27 pm

Giving honorary doctorates to commencement speakers is a time-honored practice, and U.S. presidents are often the recipients. Last night President Obama received what may be the first honorary associate degree for a U.S. president—and said in his address to the graduates of Miami Dade College that it was certainly the first for him.

Two years ago, the University of Notre Dame awarded Mr. Obama an honorary doctorate despite controversy over his support for abortion rights and embryonic-stem-cell research. But Arizona State University decided not to award him an honorary doctorate, saying his record of accomplishments did not merit one.

In his address at Miami Dade, Mr. Obama reiterated his belief in the importance of community colleges and his support for the Dream Act.

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  • CU_Alum

    I still can’t believe ASU did that. The university tried to justify its decision by listing other presidents to whom it didn’t give honorary degrees, but the others never gave an ASU commencement address.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Thomas-Polaczek/100000687613004 Thomas Polaczek

    He may be a nice man but this country is sinking

  • agoldstein

    If you think this country is sinking you should get out more. Travel around the world and you’ll find that we doing unusually well. More than that, you appear to want to hang anything that isn’t going well on a single individual and his actions over two years. Open your eyes, our government runs on a system of checks and balances and neither the executive, legislative nor judiciary branch can unilaterally have that kind of impact. Our current situation, which may not be ideal, has been built up over some time and 8 years of the Bush administration, running two wars, one of which was wholly unnecessary, at a time of tax reductions and incurring unheard of debt (not to mention the Prescription Drug Benefit which was written by the pharmaceutical companies and pours our money into their pockets) working with a Republican Congress shoulders more responsibility than the current President. Get a grip on reality.

  • willynilly

    I am sorry to inform you, Mr. Polaczek, but you have a serious visual acuity problem. Our country is not sinking as it appears to you, it is rising under President Obama. The country previously sunk to its all time low between 2000-2008 under the command of the “Flub-up” five; Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfawich and Rove, probably all friends of yours. Just stand tall and close your eyes, perhaps if you can’t see it, you will feel it rising.

  • davegillespie

    Maybe today, following the death of the Wicked Witch, Arizona State would like to award the president an honorary doctorate in absentia?

  • drj50

    There’s a difference between “did NOT merit” and “did NOT YET merit.” The Chronicle’s earlier report on the ASU decision indicated that the university decided that Obama’s record of accomplishments did NOT YET merit an honorary degree: “Because Mr. Obama’s big accomplishments are probably ahead of him, the thinking apparently went, this wasn’t the right time to present him with a degree.” (See the earlier article at the link provided in the report above.)

  • tlgriffith18

    Maybe today we can award the AMERICAN MILITARY the honorary doctorate. They are the ones who accomplished this great deed.

  • wistful1

    Nice try in downplaying the President, but that’s completely inaccurate. The President is Commander-in-Chief, so he technically runs the military. It was the President’s decision to pull troops out of Iraq and place many more of them in Afghanistan. It was the President’s decision to continue the war in Afghanistan when many in his party argued that we should leave. It was the President’s decision to place special priority on getting Osama Bin Laden and assembling a secret CIA task force to do it. Finally, it was the President who gave the orders to have him taken out after they were finally able to confirm his location. So, the President is ALSO responsible for capturing Osama Bin Laden, whether you like it or not. It was a team effort
    and it wouldn’t have happened if Obama wasn’t on board–period.

  • wistful1

    They actually gave an honorary doctorate to Tommy Lasorda prior to Obama. I guess making history as the nation’s first black President is not that big of an accomplishment compared to playing baseball? And, I’m not really an Obama fan or much of a politician, but c’mon, that’s just ridiculous.

  • nsteiger

    Obama certainly wasn’t the first. Bill Clinton received at very least two: one from NH Community Technical College and another from Miami-Dade.

  • http://profiles.google.com/philly2naples Naples Man

    I am getting so VERY tired of pointing out that you get your education from TEACHERS and NOT SCHOOLS! Every college has good teachers; and sadly,… they have mediocre and poor ones as well. Also, degrees and faculty rank guarantee NOTHING. The only reliable way to find really good and truly inspirational teachers is to talk with former students who share your desire for education. AND, by now, EVERYONE should have discovered “Rate My Professors” set up by students nationwide so new students can look up the opinions of others on specific professors and specific schools.

    http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/

  • http://profiles.google.com/philly2naples Naples Man

    Considering the CO$T of college education these days, a set of community college associate degrees in various subjects might impress prospective employers MORE than a MA or PhD in only one subject. (Just something to think about!)

  • ralfjritter

    Why am I not surprised that Stanford is doing this for FREE! Excellent PR and this approach really a great way to engage the community. What a contrast to the Harvard, Bard model ! Way to go, Stanford! 

  • http://twitter.com/leesharpsd LEE Sharp

    AI and Stanford and Predictive Analytics….strong combination for FREE….

  • http://hiresteve.com/ Steve Foerster

    It’s an interesting reminder that you don’t pay tuition to actually learn thing, you pay tuition for the credit and the degree.

  • http://twitter.com/mindythomastcc Mindy Thomas

    What a fantastic offer. In this day and age, it’s pretty unbelievable. Thank you Dr. Thrun!

  • alaskacurt

    Great to see this course offered by Stanford. As a Stanford engineering student in the late 60′s I applaud the advances obtained by generating more communication among students. Even if there are 8,000 of them.
    . Good to give a nod to George Siemens who did one of the first Massive Open Online  Courses.

  • http://twitter.com/fuxi_ma Fuxi Ma, Ph.D, P.Eng

    GREAT!

  • http://twitter.com/wwwilson Dominic Wilson

    Awesome.

  • mathgirl

    I’d really love to do this, but I just don’t think I’ll have the time for it this semester…unless I stock up on red bulls.  Will this be offered in the spring and/or summer?

  • http://www.facebook.com/pallab.rath Pallab Rath

    I think this a great move by Stanford. Looking forward for it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=505048285 Hrh ObaFemmie OduShort-tie

    Love To Be of This.

  • thinkhmm

    An article about this course at i-Programmer . info commented that “Peter Norvig is Director of Research at Google and co-author of the textbook Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, which is a central component of the course. The only downside is that you are strongly encouraged to have a copy of the textbook and this currently retails at at around $115 – but it is 1152 pages.”

  • old nassau’67

    “but they will receive grades for their assignments and exams, and those
    who complete the course online will get certificates created by the
    professors…..more than 8,000 people have asked to be put on an e-mail list.” Jeez – I had trouble grading the work of 100 – 125 per semester. This promise fulfilled I’d like to see. And make that number 8001.

  • Peter_Cao

    Sebastian Thrun mentioned in this article had deliberately trapped me for sake of a criminal suspect named Gabriele Scheler http://tysurl.com/mssgYn attention to the photo evidence in the context] in Stanford. People behind Thrun had systematically intruded my privacy which had molested many years of my life without an end. Google’s Eric Schmidt had threatened my life with a real murder case of Stanford student May Zhou (http://www.mayzhou.com) for sake of Sebastian Thrun during their fight with Stanford.

    Investigation from authorities after my tip confirms that it is people on Eric Schmidt and Sebastian Thrun (Gabriele Scheler as well)’s side who’s behind May Zhou’s murder case in order to threaten me and to terrorize Stanford. And the power on their side did try to plot a murder on me while I was in California. Before the case could be publicly clarified, neither Thrun nor Schmidt’s name is clear in such plotted murder. And so far, they dare not deny such accusations but pretend not seeing while publicly losing their faces.

    In the past, Thrun’s bosses had tried to get me work with Sebastian Thrun as a settlement of crimes from Thrun’s side, but I never compromised a bit, because as I told the investigators, that it is unfair to that innocently murdered girl May Zhou.

    It’s unfair to myself as well, as Eric Schmidt, Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler’s side did try to murder me while I was in California; Who wants to work with a professor who’s misbehaviors had caused the murder of an innocent student of his own school anyway.
    Eric Schmidt, Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler need to pay for their crimes.

    For reference please read Comments Part in
    http://read.bi/thrunscase
    http://bit.ly/schmidttt
    http://read.bi/schmitie
    http://tysurl.com/mssgYn attention to the photo evidence in the context

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=614156327 Sofia Bernadette Mari Carraze

    that is interesting

  • PeterCao123

    — Everyone who registered in this class deserves to learn anti-humanity crimes associated with instructor of this class: for more details please see [ http://tysurl.com/OslzkQ ]

  • Peter_Cao

    The link in the above poster no longer works. Someone must fear my speech to the public. Here is a new link with updated statements about this case at [ http://tysurl.com/ssEost ]and also my argument about May Zhou’s in regard to this one case when someone said the case was officially closed [ http://tysurl.com/HsEERS ]

  • thennefer

    So lets see, I have a dual PhD and 10+ years teaching in Higher Ed including online and physical. Since I have developed classes for both the physical and virtual classroom, I can also offer students self-made certificates, but will graduates be able to take them to an employer or university and exchange them for credit? After all, people with PhDs are counseling people and then charging medicare for emotional or relationship advise, why not PhDs in other fields?

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