Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Message Archive

Friday, December 9, 2011

 

 From:  James McCarthy, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

 

Colleagues,

Each year, we send out a request for nominations for candidates for Honorary Degrees from Baruch College, degrees that are presented at Commencement each year.

 

Typically, nominations we receive include major national or international figures in political, media or business spheres; distinguished Baruch graduates; and donors to the College.

 

We continue to welcome nominations of people from each of the above categories, and the traditional message seeking nominations will go out soon.

 

However, this year we want to broaden the pool of nominees to include very distinguished members of the academy, women and men who – in the words of the CUNY Criteria for Honorary Degrees – have a “national or international reputation in an academic discipline that holds a significant place in the curriculum of the awarding college.”

 

I would urge you to confer with your colleagues and present names of the “stars” in your respective fields, people who have made seminal contributions to scholarship or education in one the fields for which Baruch is well-known.  The Honorary Degree Committee met earlier this week, and decided that we would propose  at least two such names for Commencement 2012 – one to be awarded a degree at the morning session and one at the afternoon session.

 

By honoring leading figures in the fields of inquiry and instruction at Baruch, we will shed a spotlight on the important work done here as well.

 

This request does not replace our usual request; we continue to welcome nominations of others deserving of such an honor.  But I do hope you will give special attention to this request.

 

Names, accompanied by brief descriptions of the person’s accomplishments, should be sent to our office as soon as possible – certainly before the end of the semester.  Please use the following address: provost.office@baruch.cuny.edu, Subject: Honorary Degree Recommendations.

 

Thank you.

 

James McCarthy

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Baruch College

The City University of New York

 

One Bernard Baruch Way

New York, NY 10010

 

Telephone: 646-660-6500