by Annabelle Wyman ‘24.5
I would like to start by recognizing that I am a white student at Middlebury College. I was raised on stolen land and I benefit from white privilege. I am writing this essay from a position of privilege as a way to bring attention to the bias that colleges and universities exhibit when awarding honorary degrees. I do not speak for or on behalf of the Abenaki or other Indigenous communities. This essay is the culmination of interviews and research with sources that were available to me during the spring of 2021.
At universities and colleges across the country and world, it has become a tradition to recognize people with an honorary degree. This degree is not earned in the same way as the students who have put in the academic work over a multi-year span. Instead, it is presented by the school to its recipient for recognition of the work that they have completed elsewhere. The definition of recognizable work can be anything that a college or university chooses. Thus, educational institutions can exert a large amount of power, as honorary degrees are highly prestigious and can elevate one’s resume. There are two directions that honorary degrees can take, one toward the deserving and under-recognized, the other toward those in power who can bring prestige, influence or money to an institution. However, in both cases, honorary degrees are described by the institution presenting them as a recognition of outstanding work in a field relating to a public service or public good. Therefore, it is important to learn more about these awards to distinguish between the two scenarios and learn the true nature of its use.
Honorary degrees’ long history begins in 1478 in England. The first honorary degree was given by Oxford University in that year to Lionel Woodville, the brother-in-law of King Edward IV, with whom Oxford desperately wanted to curry favor (Crockett). Around the 13th century, the requirements for a doctoral degree became much more rigorous in Europe. This led the title of doctor to gain much more power, and those citizens who gained doctoral degrees became members of the nobility, similar to the level of knighthood (Dhondt 74). Instead of requiring Woodville to complete the tests and classes needed to fulfill the degree requirements, they gave him the title, so that they could get attention from other members of nobility and receive more money (Crockett). This was the first honorary degree, and the tradition has continued since, with colleges and universities around the world awarding thousands of these degrees to people who will bring attention and funds to their school.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the social prestige around doctorates had decreased as they became considered scientific degrees and more people began to receive them. Because they no longer included an increase in social status, the lavish celebrations that traditionally followed the doctorate became unnecessary and were considered too expensive (Dhondt 74). Thus, universities found themselves with a lack of public celebrations that could bring more attention to the school. This encouraged the honorary degree to increase in frequency, as it allowed schools to flatter and bribe recipients for visibility or money. In the modern era, many universities and colleges use honorary degrees to recognize celebrities, politicians, or other famous or prominent figures, who can bring some benefit to their school in return for an honorary degree. This is evident in the honorary degree awarded to Jack Nicholson and to Kermit the Frog for “an Honorary Doctorate of Amphibious Letters” (Lee). Neither Jack Nicholson nor Kermit the Frog are known for their significant contributions to academic or philanthropic fields; but both can give colleges and universities more visibility through their reputation and popularity, and thus more money from a larger number of applicants and more high profile donors. Actors in particular have become more common among honorary degree recipients as they “are the ultimate attention-gatherers whose very condition is predicated on media exposure” (Lee). Honorary degrees have continued to be the large celebration that brings positive attention to colleges and universities, just as they did during the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe.
The history of honorary degrees does not reflect well on educational institutions in the U.S. With the historic pattern of giving honorary degrees to people of high social status, colleges and universities have given more power to those who already had it. The people who traditionally gained honorary degrees were those with the means –– wealth and preliminary education –– to earn a regular degree from a college or university themselves. However, honorary degrees hold less power than they once did. Now, honorary degrees truly only have the power of honoring someone for work that an institution deems worthy of the award. With that shift, honorary degrees have become more valuable, as they have slowly been given to people who haven’t historically been in positions of power and have had to work against inequality to receive it.
In recent decades, the number of honorary degrees which have been given to people because of their work, rather than their status, has been on the rise. This has been evident in institutions such as Middlebury College. At Middlebury, the process of allocating honorary degrees is taken seriously and used for this purpose. The process starts with nominations from students and staff, which are then presented to a committee of two seniors, two faculty members, and the provost. This committee then decides which nominees are the most deserving of an honorary degree, and most likely to come to receive it. The committee looks for a diverse selection of nominees who have made an impact or difference in their field of work. These nominations are then given to the President of the College who determines who will receive the honorary degrees. I discussed the honorary degree process and significance with Jeffery Cason, the Provost of Middlebury College. He explained that an honorary degree from Middlebury, as from any other college, is not equivalent to a regular degree. Regular degrees are a culmination of the academic work required to graduate, while honorary degrees are a recognition of outstanding work in a field relating to a public service or public good. Honorary degrees hold their significance in the recognition themselves (Cason). Gaining the recognition of a prestigious school such as Middlebury demonstrates the significance of one’s accomplishments and positive impact on their communities.
Middlebury recognized two members of the Abenaki community with honorary degrees: Jeanne Brink in 2018 and Chief Don Stevens in 2019. This was an extremely important recognition for the college to make of the work that they have completed for their communities. Recently, Middlebury has worked to improve their relationship with the Abenaki community. Middlebury is built on traditional Abenaki land, and has only just begun to acknowledge its use of their ancestral areas. Middlebury has crafted a land acknowledgement, included an Abenaki prayer at commencement ceremonies, and started an Abenaki Language School to teach the language; it is one of the most endangered in the world, and considered extinct by UNESCO (“Western Abenaki”). The honorary degrees given to Chief Don Stevens and Jeanne Brink are formal recognitions of their work and help to acknowledge the importance of Indigenous communities.
In my research on the history of honorary degrees of minority communities, I was disheartened by the lack of information. There was some information on honorary degrees given to members of the African-American community, but none on honorary degrees given to members of Indigenous communities of the US. The only information I was able to find were news articles from multiple schools stating information about commencement ceremonies and the honorary degree recipients, who happened to be Indigenous. This led me to the question of whether this lack of information was due to a lack of scholarly curiosity on honorary degrees, honorary degrees for Indigenous communities, or both. It is important to understand that the history of honorary degrees has been written by white people, for white people, and honorary degrees for Indigenous communities are so new, that their importance comes from the lack of precedence around them. The lack of information on honorary degrees is incredibly disappointing as they have a large potential to begin the reparations process between educational institutions and Indigenous communities. Schools which have been built on the land of Native communities and have been inaccessible to them must begin to recognize and repair this. Honorary degrees can be a way of recognizing Indigenous communities and showing the commitment of a college or university to improving their relationship.
I had the honor of hearing the thoughts of Chief Don Stevens on the meaning of his and Jeanne Brink’s honorary degrees from Middlebury College. These are truly historic degrees, as Middlebury is the first college to present honorary degrees to members of the Abenaki community. Jeanne Brink received hers for her work as an artist and activist, and Chief Don Stevens received his as the leader of the Nulhegan Abenkai Tribe who spearheaded the campaign to achieve tribal recognition from the State of Vermont. Middlebury College observed their work and aptly deemed it to be deserving of an honorary degree. Chief Don Stevens noted the meaning of these degrees. He said,
The degrees also show a commitment and forward thinking direction that Middlebury College values the contributions and recognition of Indigenous and Abenaki people to the Vermont Landscape in which Middlebury occupies. There is a true, genuine partnership that has developed that shows the Abenaki people are not forgotten, remnants of the past, or lost to time. We are very much here and alive hoping to make lasting changes for future generations. Middlebury College has made that honor more than words and has created avenues of real change and partnership between us (Stevens).
Now that Middlebury has made this commitment to recognize the Abenaki community, they are expected to continue working towards more reparations.
In her book, Decolonizing Methodologies, Linda Tuhiwai Smith identifies twenty-five Indigenous projects that Native people work on in order to preserve, revitalize, and celebrate their culture. Chief Don Stevens and Jeanne Brink both used Tuhiwai Smith’s methodologies in their work, which was then recognized with honorary degrees. Chief Don Stevens used the project of claiming in order to gain tribal recognition, hunting rights, and fishing rights for the Abenaki from the state of Vermont. According to Tuhiwai Smith, claiming is the act of telling tribal histories and stories to “establish the legitimacy of the claims being asserted [by the tribe]” (Tuhiwai Smith 144). Chief Don Stevens used tribal history to prove that the Abenaki have been in Vermont since time immemorial in order to convince the Vermont State Legislature to protect their rights (Picard). His work, with the help of the claiming project, is what Middlebury College praised with their honorary degree for him. Similarly, Jeanne Brink used the project of creating in her work as an artist, activist, teacher, and leader. Tuhiwai Smith explains that creating is “the ability to create and be creative” through Indigenous methods (Tuhiwai Smith 159). Jeanne Brink has found creative ways to educate and make art that stays true to her heritage, and to find creative solutions to Indigenous issues as a leader in her community (Brink). Her work through the creating project is what led Middlebury College to recognize her with an honorary degree.
The honorary degrees are a step in the right direction for the college. The additional recognition of the Abenaki through the land acknowledgement, prayer, and language school also help, but none of these are enough. They do not make up for the years of colonization, genocide, and stealing land that the colonists perpetrated towards the Abenaki. Middlebury College was founded by white people, for white people, and they need to continue working in tandem with the Abenaki community to help give them the benefits that the college has traditionally only provided to the white community; far too much time has passed with this system of inequality in place. Middlebury is not done with this work, simply by recognizing members of the Abenaki community. This work will never truly be done, and honorary degrees are only one way to slowly move forward towards reconciliation. If the college wishes to continue the practice of giving honorary degrees to members of Indigenous communities, two people is not enough; there must be a more significant effort from the college to recognize more Indigenous people with degrees. Furthermore, more members of the Abenaki community should receive access to a full education and degree from Middlebury. Young members of the Abenaki community have not traditionally received degrees from the college, and this opportunity should be made more readily available by the school.
Honorary degrees truly have a complicated history. They were originally given by colleges and universities to powerful people in exchange for benefits such as money and exposure. This tradition has continued into the present with honorary degrees for celebrities. However, honorary degrees can be used to create a statement by recognizing deserving people who are infrequently honored. This was the case for the honorary degrees given to Chief Don Stevens and Jeanne Brink, and the recognition of their work by Middlebury College shows a willingness to work with the Abenaki community and honor their history and continued presence on this land.
Bibliography
Brink, Jeanne. Miniature Baskets by Jeanne Brink. n.d., https://dawnlandvoices.org/collections/items/show/289.
Cason, Jeffery. Interview by Annabelle Wyman, April 30th, 2021.
Crockett, Zachary. “Why Do Colleges Give Out ‘Honorary’ Degrees?” Priceonomics, http://priceonomics.com/why-do-colleges-give-out-honorary-degrees/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2021.
Dhondt, Pieter. “Honorary Doctoral Degrees as Expressions of Political and Cultural Relationships at Nordic University Jubilees (1840–1911).” Centaurus, vol. 56, no. 2, 2014, pp. 71–96. Wiley Online Library, doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1600-0498.12051.
Lee, Katja, and P. David Marshall. “Honorary Degrees for Celebrities: Persona, Scandal, and the Case of Bill Cosby.” Celebrity Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, Routledge, Jan. 2021, pp. 102–18. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, doi:10.1080/19392397.2019.1612762.
Picard, Ken. “Chief Don Stevens Represents a New Era of Abenaki Leadership in Vermont.” Seven Days, https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/chief-don-stevens-represents-a-new-era-of-abenaki-leadership-in-vermont/Content?oid=29751810. Accessed 28 May 2021.
Stevens, Don. Interview by Annabelle Wyman, April 22nd, 2021.
Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. “Twenty-five Indigenous Projects.” Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books, 2012, pp. 143-164.
“Western Abenaki Dictionary and Online Lessons: Home of the Abenaki Language.” WesternAbenaki.com, http://westernabenaki.com/. Accessed 20 May 2021.