The UT Board of Trustees voted at its Feb. 26 meeting to award former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore an honorary doctorate.
Gore, whose 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” won an Academy Award, joins just two others in receiving an honorary doctorate from UT-Knoxville. Former Sen. Howard Baker received one in 2005, and entertainer Dolly Parton was awarded one last year.
Gore will receive an honorary doctor of laws and humane letters in ecology and evolutionary biology degree at the College of Arts and Sciences graduation ceremonies on May 14.
“The decision to grant an honorary degree is not entered into lightly, and this is certainly no exception,” Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek said. “Mr. Gore 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.”
College Democrats President Paula Roush voiced her approval of the choice.
“I think he’s definitely a very worthy person to get the honorary doctorate, if you think about all he’s done for the country,” Roush said. “He was vice president. I think it’s a great honor.”
College Republicans President John DiChiara said students he’s talked to are buzzing about the choice, but feelings among them are mixed.
“I have spoken with students that are very excited about the speaker at graduation (Gore) and others that are very opposed to this year’s selection,” he said. “As a high-profile political figure and former vice president of our great country, I feel it is very important that we, as a university, put aside our political ideologies or personal opinions concerning climate change and show the utmost respect toward Al Gore as he makes plans to speak at our graduation ceremony and receive his honorary doctorate.”
Gore’s stance on the issue of climate change sparked a debate at the Board of Trustees meeting.
While insisting that he believed Gore was, indeed, worthy of the honor, Board of Trustees member Crawford Gallimore still questioned whether the university might be getting involved in “controversial advocacies” as it doles out honorary degrees.
Board of Trustees member Douglas Horne said every leader had opposition, including the members of the Board of Trustees.
Gallimore reminded the board to use “exceeding care” when deciding who gets honorary degrees, as he said it says in the university bylaws. But board member Karl Schledwitz said the board did use “exceeding care” in the process, and Gore’s accomplishments speak for themselves.
Board member Jim Murphy said the field in which Gore is an advocate is the same field in which the university and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have an expertise, which would help promote UT and ORNL.
Murphy said he did not think the degree served as an endorsement of any political stance, and he warned against shying away from honorary degree candidates because of controversy.
“I really think we need to be careful about pulling ourselves too far into a shell and saying, ‘We don’t want to award a degree to someone who might be controversial,’ because as a result, I think that more and more people would be disqualified,” he said.
With the university awarding two honorary degrees in back-to-back years to two commencement speakers, Parton and Gore, trustee Andrea Loughry asked if the university would be increasing its rate of awarding honorary degrees.
“I know some universities do three or four a year,” Loughry said. “What principle are we changing here, in terms of our history?”
Cheek called the university an “outlier” in terms of awarding honorary degrees or recognizing distinguished alumni. He said the university has increased its recognition of distinguished alumni and needs to continue to increase its recognition of students, faculty, distinguished alumni, friends and the university itself.
Murphy said the attitudes about Gore receiving the honor now and the historical perspective in the future may differ.
“This probably will be the most controversial honorary degree we’ve awarded this far,” he said. “Might not be the most controversial one we’ll ever see.”