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Poll: Should UT Knoxville present Al Gore with an honorary doctoral degree?

Don't laugh; this is serial...

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  March 4th, 2010 at 03:05 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Here’s your chance to weigh in on a matter of considerable importance.

UT to give Gore honorary degree

The degree – an Honorary Doctor of Laws and Humane Letters in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology – will be given to Gore at the spring commencement exercises of the College of Arts and Sciences on May 14, where he will be the featured speaker.

“Vice President Gore’s career has been marked by visionary leadership, and his work has quite literally changed our planet for the better,” UT Knoxville Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek said in a statement. “He is among the most accomplished and respected Tennesseans in history, and it is fitting that he should be honored by the flagship education institution of his home state.”

I encourage you to vote the way your conscience tells you in the accompanying online poll.

Poll results as of about 2 p.m. below the fold.

I know, I know, it’s unscientific, but still…

H/T Drudge

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COMMENTS

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  • Achance

    from some school that wanted to “honor” them. Half of them go to work for universities after they leave office. Even here in very Red Alaska, we’re in the 8th year of having the governorship and in the 20th or so year of controlling the legislature. We have a Board of Regents entirely composed of Murkowski and Palin appointments and yet one of three finalists for the Chancellor of the University of Alaska is the former head of the Democrat Party and a former Democrat Commissioner of Health and So-called Services.

  • tngal

    Honestly when this originally came out I opted not to bring it to RS because it besmirches this state so bad. And we’ve got enough on our plates trying to keep tanner and davis on the straight and narrow with the healthcare thing.

    But since you threw it out there…

    It is incomprehensible that even as his original premise of global warming is crumbling around him, he continues to receive these gaudy paperweights . I might, might- understand it if they were giving him something because somehow he made VP , but for visionary leadership? All I can figure is he must have donated some cash or something to the school.

  • swamphermit

    and Dan Rather belong in prison. Since I can’t sentence him to Life Without Parole, I voted no…

  • romeg

    Why not rename the school after AlGore. Does anyone that visits or posts to this site on anything like a regular basis seriously believe that any opinion survey or criticism of him or his Visionary Leadership is going to make one whit of difference.

    This is a Fait Accompli, a big wet kiss to a favored alumnus and favorite son of TN.

  • Tbone

    he buckled down and voted 366 times.

  • Adrienne

    I’ve been writing about this at my blog CosmopolitanConservative.com since Friday.

    I also started a Facebook page to protest which has more than 1,100 fans.
    http://tinyurl.com/yzf86nm

    I’m waiting for the University to respond to my phone calls, but other members have posted this message:

    Thank you for your email about the Board of Trustees’ approval of former Vice President Gore to receive an honorary doctorate and serve as the featured commencement speaker for the College of Arts and Sciences this May.

    The decision to grant Mr. Gore with an honorary doctorate was not entered into lightly. He was nominated for the position by a member of the faculty and this nomination was advanced by two separate committees of faculty and administrators before being approved by both the Academic Affairs and Student Success Committee and the full Board of Trustees.

    In granting Mr. Gore this degree and asking him to speak, the university is not endorsing nor denying his stances as a public advocate on any issue. This honor is instead designed to recognize his long service to the country and the fact that he has received both national and international honors that make him unique among Tennesseans.

    As an educational institution, the university supports a respectful, tolerant and accepting environment that allows people to share their own ideas and learn from one another?s differing viewpoints. Thanks again for your feedback.

    Sincerely,
    Jimmy G. Cheek
    Chancellor

    Previous experience with my alma mater has shown that UT responds to angry donors. They ignore students, but when alumni withhold funding, they eventually listen. If enough alumni call and complain, the University will be forced to admit that they stepped into a major crisis quite voluntarily.

    If you’re an alumni, please call 865-974-3265 or email Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek at chancellor@utk.edu.

    • conservos
      • Raven

        That doesn’t actually work here…

        • conservos
  • RedBeard

    After all, the Nobel twits pass out Peace Prizes with all the careful consideration that Cracker Jack puts into its choice of prizes.

  • bobojake
  • nessa

    I’ve been a solid Tennessee fan for a while, once going so far as to sing Rocky Top in a bowling alley in Leesville LA, just to drive off a bunch of rabid LSU fans. This is a deal breaker. Go Gators!

    • tngal

      I.m a half hour from the Alabama border. I can pick up Roll Ttide shirt for you to wear on alternate saturdays if you like.

      • nessa

        I’ll probably develop a rash.

  • http://stixblog.com Black River Wolf

    for Snake Oil Salesman of the Year. I am serial

    • 6eorge Jetson

      is what he should receive.

      “Anthropogenic Global Warming”. You can’t spell it without “Al Gore”

  • ss396

    As several of the above commenter have noted, this incessant awarding of honorary degrees cheapens the real thing. The more widespread the practice, the cheaper the reward. It’s the same mentality that gives every kid on the team a medal and a trophy, irrespective of achievement, talent, or standing. By this practice the honorary degree has come to have the same significance as does my perfect attendance pin from Sunday School.

  • saterp

    If Gore gets an honorary degree in ‘Environment,’ then Bernie Madoff deserves one in ‘Finance.’

  • vamoose

    Al Gore is on the way.

    BTW, as of this morning there was 51″ of snow on Mt Leconte, TN, 50 or so miles from UT.

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Jacobson get2djnow

    This will give one more thing for the libertarian “iPundit” to brag about.