University Faculty Votes To Revoke Donald Trump’s Honorary Degree

Thirty years after presenting Donald
Trump with an honorary degree, and following the circulation
of two separate petitions to rescind it, a majority of faculty
members at Lehigh University have voted to move
forward with a motion to revoke the degree, which the president
received when he gave the Pennsylvania college’s 1988 commencement
address. According to the school’s newspaper, The Brown and
White, 357 of 472 total assistant, associate, and full
professors participated in Tuesday’s vote; of those, 83% supported
the motion to take away Trump’s honorary degree, 14% voted against
it, and 3% abstained from the vote. Also on Tuesday, the school’s
student senate reportedly announced its support of the faculty’s
motion to relieve Trump of the degree.

“Statements made by President Trump do not meet Lehigh’s
standards for respectful discourse where differences of opinion
exist. If a member of Lehigh’s on-campus community made one of
these statements, he/she would be subject to disciplinary action;
taken in their entirety, he/she would be at risk of dismissal,”
the motion reads. “If
we only adhere to our principles when convenient and if we enforce
our standards inconsistently, they are meaningless, disingenuous,
and worse. By staying silent we are bystanders; we normalize hate
speech, condone discrimination and bullying; we enable people in
positions of power to corrode the foundations of civil society; and
we abdicate our commitment and responsibility to uphold and sustain
our core values.”

The faculty’s statement continues: “By revoking President
Trump’s honorary degree on these grounds, we are not commenting on
his political views or policies, nor are we diminishing his right
to speak as dictated by personal belief. We are emphatically
affirming that such speech is in complete conflict with Lehigh’s
values, is ‘inconsistent with the character and high standards
expected of honorees,’ and is unacceptable from a member of our
community.” They added, “Donald Trump accepted an honorary degree
from Lehigh and so is a member of our community, subject to both
its privileges and its responsibilities. He has through a series of
well documented statements exhibited behavior antithetical to
Lehigh values. These statements are unacceptable and provide strong
evidence of an ongoing disregard for the values that are the
foundation of this university.”

The voters ended the motion with a “non-exhaustive list”
of offensive statements Trump has made in
recent years, many of them racist and sexist — or an even more
troubling combinationof the two.

The motion will now be presented to the board of trustees, who
will have the final say on whether Trump’s Lehigh degree is
revoked. As mentioned in the faculty’s motion, after being
presented with an August 2017 petition signed by
more than 30,000 people to rescind the degree, the board decided to
take “no action.” If they do so again, both the faculty and the
student senate have requested that the board releases a written
explanation as to why they’re allowing Trump to remain an official
member of the Lehigh community, despite what many members of that
community see as his total disregard for their collective values
and standards of respect.

There is precedent, however, for the board to take back an
honorary degree. According to an FAQ section provided by the faculty
about their decision, the trustees voted to revoke Bill Cosby’s
degree in 2015, citing behavior “antithetical to the values of
Lehigh University and inconsistent with the character and high
standards that honorary degree recipients are expected to
exemplify.”

Thirty years after presenting Donald
Trump with an honorary degree, and following the circulation
of two separate petitions to rescind it, a majority of faculty
members at Lehigh University have voted to move
forward with a motion to revoke the degree, which the president
received when he gave the Pennsylvania college’s 1988 commencement
address. According to the school’s newspaper, The Brown and
White, 357 of 472 total assistant, associate, and full
professors participated in Tuesday’s vote; of those, 83% supported
the motion to take away Trump’s honorary degree, 14% voted against
it, and 3% abstained from the vote. Also on Tuesday, the school’s
student senate reportedly announced its support of the faculty’s
motion to relieve Trump of the degree.

“Statements made by President Trump do not meet Lehigh’s
standards for respectful discourse where differences of opinion
exist. If a member of Lehigh’s on-campus community made one of
these statements, he/she would be subject to disciplinary action;
taken in their entirety, he/she would be at risk of dismissal,”
the motion reads. “If
we only adhere to our principles when convenient and if we enforce
our standards inconsistently, they are meaningless, disingenuous,
and worse. By staying silent we are bystanders; we normalize hate
speech, condone discrimination and bullying; we enable people in
positions of power to corrode the foundations of civil society; and
we abdicate our commitment and responsibility to uphold and sustain
our core values.”

The faculty’s statement continues: “By revoking President
Trump’s honorary degree on these grounds, we are not commenting on
his political views or policies, nor are we diminishing his right
to speak as dictated by personal belief. We are emphatically
affirming that such speech is in complete conflict with Lehigh’s
values, is ‘inconsistent with the character and high standards
expected of honorees,’ and is unacceptable from a member of our
community.” They added, “Donald Trump accepted an honorary degree
from Lehigh and so is a member of our community, subject to both
its privileges and its responsibilities. He has through a series of
well documented statements exhibited behavior antithetical to
Lehigh values. These statements are unacceptable and provide strong
evidence of an ongoing disregard for the values that are the
foundation of this university.”

The voters ended the motion with a “non-exhaustive list”
of offensive statements Trump has made in
recent years, many of them racist and sexist — or an even more
troubling combinationof the two.

The motion will now be presented to the board of trustees, who
will have the final say on whether Trump’s Lehigh degree is
revoked. As mentioned in the faculty’s motion, after being
presented with an August 2017 petition signed by
more than 30,000 people to rescind the degree, the board decided to
take “no action.” If they do so again, both the faculty and the
student senate have requested that the board releases a written
explanation as to why they’re allowing Trump to remain an official
member of the Lehigh community, despite what many members of that
community see as his total disregard for their collective values
and standards of respect.

There is precedent, however, for the board to take back an
honorary degree. According to an FAQ section provided by the faculty
about their decision, the trustees voted to revoke Bill Cosby’s
degree in 2015, citing behavior “antithetical to the values of
Lehigh University and inconsistent with the character and high
standards that honorary degree recipients are expected to
exemplify.”