Honorary Degrees

Honorary Degrees

1. Crown Career College shall award Honorary Degrees only at the doctoral level unless board action allows an exception.

2. All honorary degrees shall be conferred by the Board of Trustees of the college, in the name of the Crown Career College.

3. The board of trustees shall determine the number of honorary degrees to be awarded in any academic year, not to exceed 10.  In most cases, the board will consider no more than two nominations from each school in an academic year. Board members and the chancellor may submit nominations during the same period, with a limit of one trustee nomination for conferral at each school during an academic year.

4. A school president and the chancellor will consult when a trustee submits a nomination for conferral at the president's school. The president will advise the chancellor of any concerns. If the president and chancellor agree to support the nomination, it will be forwarded to the Trustees Subcommittee on Honorary Degrees for review and recommendation.

5. The following honorary degree types shall be recognized for conferral by the Board of Trustees:

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   1. Doctor of Humane Letters (L. H. D.)

   2. Doctor of Laws (LL.D.)

   3. Doctor of Letters (Litt.D.)

   4. Doctor of Science (Sc.D.)

   5. Doctor of Fine Arts (D.F. A.)

Other types may be proposed to the board for consideration. However, the board will not authorize degree designations that are conventionally conferred as earned doctorates.

 

 

Criteria for the Awarding of Honorary Degrees

Honorary degrees may be awarded to recognize achievements in all parts of the world. Honorary degrees awarded should represent an appropriate balance between local and non-local, academic and non-academic recipients, and degrees should represent a wide variety of fields of endeavor.

Service or benefaction to the college does not alone justify the awarding of honorary degrees. However, these criteria do not preclude nominees who are benefactors of the college. Personal relationships alone do not justify the awarding of honorary degrees.

Nominees for honorary degrees must demonstrate high moral character, be distinguished in their respective fields, and the eminence of persons nominated must be widely recognized. Nominees must have demonstrated intellectual and humane values that are consistent with the ideals of the college, the aims of higher education, and with the highest ideals of the person's chosen fields.

 

The following are the criteria for awarding Crown Career College honorary degrees:

1. To recognize the inspirational character, excellence, and extraordinary achievement in significant areas of human endeavor that reflect the objectives and ideals of the college.

2. To honor meritorious and outstanding service to the Crown Career College collectively or to individual schools, the college, the United States, or to humanity at large.

3. To recognize individuals whose lives, conduct, and significant achievements serve as examples of the College’s aspirations for its diverse student body.

4. The honoree must be present at the appropriate Crown Career College function to accept the degree; or in case of the honoree's severe illness, a family member must be present at the appropriate function to accept the degree.

5. A family member must agree to accept a posthumous degree at an appropriate Crown Career College function.

 

Limitations on Eligibility

Honorary degrees shall not be awarded to:

1. Incumbent members of the Board of Trustees of the college.

2. The incumbent chancellor of the college.

3. Incumbent school presidents of the college.

4. A person who already has been awarded an honorary degree by the college.

5. All incumbent elected officials; and

6. Honorary degrees shall not be awarded solely based on past or present employment by the college.

7. Current faculty and staff, as well as members of their immediate family, are ineligible to receive an honorary degree.

 

 

Procedures for Selecting Honorary Degree Recipients

In all steps of these procedures, utmost care must be taken to ensure confidentiality. A breach of confidentiality could seriously embarrass Crown Career College and those individuals under consideration for the receipt of an honorary degree. Members of school honorary degree selection committees and the Trustees Subcommittee on Honorary Degrees shall maintain the strictest confidence regarding nominations considered and recommended. No school representative or trustee is to contact a prospective nominee to discuss the possibility of a nomination. Only after the chancellor officially informs the school of trustee action may school personnel to discuss the honorary degree with the honoree.

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1. Recommendations of persons to receive honorary degrees are encouraged from any member of the Crown Career College community, including trustees, the chancellor, presidents, faculty, students, administrative staff, alumni, school advisory board members, and other friends of the college. Such recommendations may include the type of honorary degree believed appropriate.

2. Trustees who wish to forward a nomination shall first consult with the chancellor prior to making a recommendation.

3. In each nomination cycle, the school (through the president) may submit two nominations for conferral in the current or immediately subsequent academic year. An approved degree may be awarded in the academic year in which it was authorized for conferral and no later than in the year immediately following the originally approved conferral year. Schools are responsible for maintaining the limit of conferring only two school-nominated honorary degrees in one academic year. Trustee-nominated degrees are not included in the limits of two school-nominated and conferred degrees per year.

4. Recommendations originating in any of the school communities shall be submitted through the school president. The submission shall note whether the degree is to be conferred only in the name of the Crown Career College or in the names of the Crown Career College and the school. Recommendations originating elsewhere within the Crown Career College community at large shall be submitted through the chancellor.

5. Each school president, after consultation with the executive committee of the school academic senate, shall establish an honorary degree selection committee that includes faculty representation. The committee shall review recommendations and assist in the development and compilation of materials in support of nominations to be forwarded. Following appropriate consultation with this committee, the president shall select no more than two nominations to be forwarded to the chancellor in any given academic year. Honorary degrees awarded to couples (as individuals) shall count as only one degree of the two nominations allowed for each school annually.

6. The chancellor, in turn, shall review and forward all qualified nominations, with any appropriate comments to a separately constituted Trustees Subcommittee on Honorary Degrees of the Committee on Educational Policy, which meets in conjunction with the annual January meeting of the board.

7. The Trustees Subcommittee on Honorary Degrees shall be chaired by a member of the Committee on Educational Policy and shall be named by the chair of that committee. The Subcommittee shall be staffed by a member of the Academic and Student Affairs Division and shall include:

   1. One additional trustee (other than the chair of the subcommittee), to be named by the board chair.

   2. The chancellor or designee.

   3. Two presidents, to be named by the chancellor: and

   4. The following representatives, are to be appointed by the chancellor following consultation with the respective bodies:

      1. Two faculty members nominated by the Academic Senate,

      2. One alumnus nominated by the Crown Career College Alumni Council; and

      3. One student was nominated by the College Student Association.

8. The Trustees Subcommittee on Honorary Degrees, meeting in closed session, shall review all nominations received, and shall forward to the Committee on Educational Policy each nomination with the subcommittee's notation of "recommended" or "not recommended," using the policies and criteria set forth in this policy as the basis for the subcommittee's determinations.

9. The full Committee on Educational Policy, following similar procedures, shall forward to the full board for final consideration no more than two nominations per school and those nominations originating with the board and/or the chancellor, indicating in each case the full committee's determination of "recommended" or "not recommended."

10. The Board of Trustees, meeting in closed session, shall make the final determination in each case, and will, by virtue of its exclusive authority in this matter, agree to award the degree type it considers most appropriate.

 

Conferral of Degrees

1. Honorary degrees may be conferred during any Crown Career College function that the board of trustees considers appropriate.

2. If the degree is to be conferred only in the name of the college, the chair of the board of trustees, the chancellor, and the school president, where appropriate, will participate in the conferral ceremony. The convention is as follows:

   1. When a school is involved:

      1. The chair of the board of trustees (or designee) will read the citation.

      2. The chancellor, if present, or the school president will confer the degree; and

      3. The school president (or designee) will hood the degree recipient.

   2. When a school is not involved:

      1. The chair of the board of trustees (or designee) will read the citation.

      2. The chancellor (or designee) will confer the degree; and

      3. The vice-chair of the board of trustees (or designee) will hood the degree recipient.

3. If the degree is to be conferred in the names of the Crown Career College and the school, the chair of the board of trustees or designee will participate in the conferral ceremony. Usually, the school president or designee will confer the degree.

4. The Chancellor's Office shall reimburse school hood and regalia costs for trustee-nominated honorees. Costs associated with school-nominated honorees will be the responsibility of the school.

Limits of Degree Authorization

1. Authorization to confer an honorary degree remains in effect for two academic years after board action. If a confirmed honoree cannot agree to accept the degree at an appropriate Crown Career College function within the year following the originally planned conferral, the authorization shall be rescinded, and the honoree may be nominated subsequently by the same school or a different school during a later nomination cycle.

2. If an honorary degree holder is found not to uphold the criteria and standards for which the degree was awarded, the chancellor may hold the honorary degree in abeyance, pending board action. The board of trustees shall meet in closed session and by virtue of its exclusive authority in this matter shall make the final determination regarding whether any previously conferred honorary degree shall be revoked.

Amending Honorary Degree Policy

1. Proposals for amendments to this policy may be directed to the chancellor, who will forward proposals to the chair of the board of trustees. The chair shall consider and may forward the proposed amendments to the Educational Policy Committee of the board. The Educational Policy Committee shall consider proposed changes and may present to the board a recommended action.

2. The full board of trustees shall meet in closed session and by virtue of its exclusive authority in this matter shall make the final determination on proposed changes to honorary degree policy.

Nominations will be accepted starting August 1, 2022, with a deadline of January 31, 2023. The first meeting will be held in February of 2023 with subsequent meetings in February and March. Final candidates will be notified by April 1, 2023, for the May 21, 2023 graduation ceremony.

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