The Readers: Howard, You Are SO Wrong About Jeb's Honorary Degree

Gotta admit, the strong majority of comments in today's e-mail, and in my online chat with readers earlier today, is in strong disagreement with my column this morning about the University of Florida faculty's rejection of former Gov. Jeb Bush for an honorary degree.

I said, look, the guy was governor for eight years; this isn't supposed to be a screening or litmus test of his politics. But most readers supported the faculty and, let's call it, a "merit-based'' approach -- and said Jeb didn't merit it. Examples:

I suppose I get your point. However I wouldn't be willing to bestow a honorary degree of dogcatcher just because of his policies! Ever stop and think how bad his policies must have been just to perpetuate this unprecedented no vote? Except for their dad, the Bush boys should earn their degrees the old fashion way, study and take the tests. Even if it means taking the ones regarding separation of powers over and over again until they get the concept. Thanks for the ear, senator -- J.Blomgren

Troxler's reasoning seems so weird on this... that I can't believe HE even believes it.  Maybe he just didn't realize the extent of Jeb's fiddling with the university system & faculty unions, but   find that unlikely too.  So maybe the topic was just an "assignment," --not that we'll ever know. -- Bill Bucolo

Look at the University System, totally dismantled by Governor Bush, and now left to fend for themselves even as the Board of Governors imposes rules on how money is spent and obtained... The Bush follows in his brothers foot steps. What have they done to our system of education? ... They have left behind children, students, faculty and staff at each grade level of education from kindergarten to doctoral degrees...Why should this governor be honored by this education system that he imposed on us? -- Mike Temple

I agree with the U of F. faculty Senate because of what Bush has done to the higher  educational system in the state of Florida. The Board of Regents worked very well and took the politics out of higher education.  Now, every university has to compete with the others to get money for their schools.  Bush returned higher education back to "gutter politics".  Big business is the only one that should be rewarding Bush for all of the huge tax cuts they received from him, and I would be willing to bet that they will pay him back "big time". I am proud of U of F. -- Margaret Hyde

Unfortunately, honorary degrees are giving out like candy by all the community colleges and universities for various reasons, mostly political, and financial.  Contribution to education, scholarship or just good moral examples for graduates has been the basis of a minority of honorary degrees in my experience in about 20+ graduations.  Rather than being critical of the faculty senate, I am critical of the system for giving honorary degrees for political or financial reasons which doesn’t benefit education. -- Curtis

Not that it was unanimous. This gentleman copied me on an e-mail he sent to UF President Bernie Machen:

It is a rare day indeed when I can agree 100% with anything editorially written in the St. Petersburg Times.  Howard Troxler is always a particularly challenging contributor, but today he was right on target.  I trust you have read the article.  Frankly, as  an alumnus [as are my wife and two adult children] I was so angered by the actions of the University that I felt it better to not write, but Troxler prompts us all to action.   I just have some additional thoughts to his perceptive analysis. -- Richard W. Cope

Comments

[Joe from Philly]

Troxblog gets front page over at FLAPolitics.
http://www.flapolitics.com/frontPage.do

[Joe from Philly]

Gainesville Sun reports:
"The honorary degree, however, is granted by the faculty, and is typically given to people who have pushed the frontiers of knowledge - Nobel laureates, researchers who develop new procedures for treating cancer, artists who forge new paths in artistic expression, novelists and poets who create new ways to portray the human experience. The Faculty Senate's role in this process is to monitor the academic quality of the honorary degree."

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070327/EDITORIALS0101/703270307

[Skip Landauer]

I read your column regularly and like it, but not this one. I love UF and respect the faculty. They have expressed an opinion that most knowledgeable students of Jeb's efforts as governor hold. Do you notice the different feeling in Florida since Jeb left office?
The press has been very timid in commenting on the state during Jeb's rein. He has the same attitude that his brother has and that is not good.
I am a Democrat but am very pleased with what Charlie Crist has done so far.
The press should take the exception to bad positions by the Governor, President, Congressman and Senators. That is why newspaper readership is off.
Have some balls and say what you think. Skip

As I recall, education was THE big issue in 2002 and Jeb won re-election with 58% of the vote. At the time, my wife was a teacher and she wasn't happy about having to teach to the FCAT. I saw the FCAT differently. I saw it as a way to end social promotion and improve reading skills--which I think it has. As for the state university system, if citizens don't like things the way they are, then vote for change. Last November, voters again returned a Republican majority to the legislature, and in January Jeb left office with a 60% approval rating.

[Jim Johnson]

Honorary degrees are a joke played on the vain; like getting picked for Miss America, or being elected a Bull when youre really an Ox. Lincoln said it best when he observed that no one and no institution has the power to add one iota of prestige to the honor a person acquires via their deeds. It cant be done. Honorary diplomas are flattery at best.

The real problem, of course, is: Jeb Bush has many more friends than the UF Senate does. UF will, somehow-someway, pay for the snub. And the university runs the risk of its 'approval' being discounted and becoming irrelevant; like an endorsement by the American Communist Party or Ku Klux Klan is discounted and irrelevant, if not an embarrassment.

[Jennifer W]

Did any of you readers ever communicate with Jeb while he was in office? We did, for better and for worse. Jeb almost always seemed to respond to his emails, even if it was just a sentence of a response. If you were agreeing with him, you got sunshine and rainbows back in your inbox. If you were disagreeing with him, look out for the bullets and arrows. Even with that one sentence response we felt his sharp tongue, regardless of how polite we were with our initial email to him.

My husband, a gator, told me last night that he suspects many of the UF "no" voters also felt that my-way-or-the-highway attitude from Jeb. Hence their vote. You catch more flies with honey...

[Dave J]

Yes, Jennifer, I had a 6 yr, 400 page email correspondance with Jeb. Still do, but less frequently now that he's no longer in office. As a moderate R, I found Jeb to be a hard working (most emails were exchanged before 7 a.m.), idea driven person. Was he occasionally "snappy"? Sure, but so was I, since I sometimes raised national issues. Re FL issues he was invariably curteous and interested. In my opinion, Jeb learned from his mistakes and from the suffering he witnessed as Governor, and I have emails to prove it. I wish Jeb & his family the very best.