Honorary Degrees Committee

The job of the Alumni Council Honorary Degrees Committee is to submit three to five names of alumni worthy of consideration for an honorary degree from Dartmouth College to the College's Committee on Honorary Degrees, which makes the final decision. 

To be nominated, an individual must have attained intellectual distinction at national and international levels, reached professional achievement of the highest order, or made contributions of genuine significance in areas of public service or Dartmouth College involvement. The Alumni Council Honorary Degrees Committee is tasked with identifying and researching living undergraduate school alumni of this caliber and nominating the best among them.

If you know an alumnus you believe meets the high standards required for an honorary degree, please send the person's name and any information you'd like to share about him or her to Diana Lawrence '11MALS, secretary, Alumni Council Honorary Degrees Committee, 6068 Blunt Alumni Center, Hanover, NH  03755.  All nominations are confidential.

Report from the 200th Alumni Council, May 20–22, 2010:

The Honorary Degrees Committee met on May 21 to finalize a list of alumni candidates to be submitted to the College's Committee on Honorary Degrees for consideration with respect to the College's June 2011 Commencement. Ten of our 13 committee members were present, along with Sue Young ’77, our on-campus administrative liaison. During our April conference call we had narrowed a list of 12 names down to five, and the members of the committee were charged with one final review of each name for discussion at the May meeting.

After a robust discussion of each of the five names, we decided to forward two of the five as our final recommendations for the 2011 commencement. Of the three candidates not submitted, two have been held for review at a later date and one was removed from the list for further consideration. We also discussed another name that had surfaced too late for consideration for this year’s submission, and have requested additional research so that the individual can be reviewed again at the committee’s December 2010 meeting. Sue Young provided information on three additional names for further review at a later date. We also learned that two of our nominated alumni candidates from last year’s list will receive honorary degrees from the College at this year’s Commencement: Barry MacLean ’60, ’61Th, and James Nachtwey ’70.

We ended the meeting with Louisa Guthrie ’79, outgoing chair, passing the baton to Bobby Charles ’87, incoming chair, and Bonnie Henderson ’87, ’93DMS, newly appointed vice chair.

Report from the 199th Alumni Council, December 3–5, 2009:

The Honorary Degrees Committee met with a full complement of members present, as well as Sue Young '77 of Alumni Relations, our Dartmouth coordinator. We welcomed our five new members, and then launched into a rigorous discussion of the 23 names we had focused on during our fall conference call. During the fall conference call, we assigned at least two (and sometimes three) committee members to review at least one  of the 23 names so that discussion during the December meeting would ensure a diverse range of opinions and outlooks on each candidate. During the meeting we restated our goal to find alumni with some combination of:

• professional achievement
• public service
• intellectual distinction, and
• love and commitment to Dartmouth.

After some robust discussion, we narrowed the original 23 names to 12. We will be assigning each of those 12 candidates to two to three committee members for further vetting, and will review each name at our May Alumni Council meeting. Our goal is to end up with three to five names to submit to the Dartmouth College Council for Honorary Degrees, 2011 commencement celebration. We continue to build our pool of potential future candidates with nominations from class presidents (50th-year class presidents, in particular) and general solicitations to various class leaders. 

Report from the 198th Alumni Council, May 4–6, 2009:

The Honorary Degrees Committee conducted its fourth and final meeting of the year with 11 of 12 committee members present in person or by phone. The committee reviewed the list of individuals who will be receiving honorary degrees during the 2009 Commencement, including Dartmouth alumni Louise Erdrich ’79 and Dr. Raymond B. Johnson ’59. The committee then reviewed the 10 finalists who emerged following our last meeting to be considered for recommendation to the president for honorary degrees for the 2010 Commencement. Three were recommended for degrees, four were put on hold for future consideration, and three were archived.

The committee also discussed 11 new potential names for future consideration. Two had previously been awarded degrees, and the other nine will be further researched and discussed in a future meeting. The pipeline, particularly of those in the class of 1961, with their 50th reunion coming up next, needs to be further refined. There was also a good discussion about the attributes the committee seeks in recommending degrees, which include intellectual distinction, professional achievement, public service, and Dartmouth involvement. Additional attributes might include inspirational, aspirational, passion, enduring success, relevance and significance, character, and values. These were summarized in a presentation, which will be made available online, made by the chair to the Alumni Council in a plenary session on Saturday morning. 

Finally, the committee elected Louisa Guthrie ’79 as new chair and Bob Charles ’87 as new vice chair.