Honorary WSU Degree Hits Major Snag Japanese Donor’s Doctorate Wasn’t Approved

Hitoshi Maeda joined the elite company of two Pulitzer Prize winners and a Nobel laureate this May when he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Washington State University.

Problem is, the degree was bogus.

Bernard Oliver, then-dean of WSU’s College of Education, awarded the degree without first clearing a set of hurdles aimed at making sure the honor is given to only the most worthy recipients.

Maeda’s qualifications include the invention of a stone instrument, the furthering of an educational partnership between WSU and schools in Nishinomiya, Japan, and donations to the school totaling almost $75,000.

Because the Japanese industrialist’s degree wasn’t approved by WSU’s Board of Regents, among others, “it really isn’t an honorary degree,” said a dismayed Bob Wilson, former chairman of the Honorary Doctoral Degrees Committee.

“This is a dishonorable honorary degree that we’ve awarded,” said Don Orlich, a professor of education and science instruction.

Orlich, who wrote to school officials about the degree last month, wants WSU to write a letter of reprimand to Oliver, who has since taken a similar position at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

Orlich also wants WSU President Sam Smith to apologize in person to Maeda, “an innocent victim.” Barring that, Maeda should receive an apology from Tom Foley, former House speaker and recently nominated to be American ambassador to Japan, Orlich said.

The WSU administration is consulting with the university faculty about how to proceed, according to a brief statement issued Thursday afternoon by Provost Gretchen Bataille.

Without elaborating, the statement said the awarding of Maeda’s degree was a “procedural error.”

Top WSU officials were otherwise not talking. Smith did not respond to a request for an interview and Richard Albrecht, president of the Board of Regents, did not return repeated phone calls. Bataille was out of town.

Oliver did not return phone calls, either.

The university has generally been stingy with the degrees, in marked contrast with other schools that often give honorary doctorates as “quid pro quos” for donations, said Wilson.

Smith has been particularly strict about who got degrees.

The most recent recipients of a WSU honorary doctorate are Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, in 1995, and the poets Howard Nemerov in 1989 and Carolyn Kizer in 1991. Both Nemerov and Kizer, a Spokane native, were winners of the Pulitzer Prize.

None of them has contributed money to the university, according to school records.

Since 1989, Maeda has given the College of Education $74,658 to establish a scholarly exchange with Nishinomiya schools. He is also a benefactor of the University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton School of Music.

Maeda received his WSU doctorate at the College of Education’s May 10 commencement recognition ceremony. Unlike the university-wide commencement, it was not attended by Smith or the full Board of Regents.

Nobody appears to be talking about asking Maeda to give the degree back.

“I think they’re trying to find a way that is tactful and discrete so that we don’t embarrass anyone,” said Jane Lawrence, director of the Honors Program and current chairwoman of the honorary doctorate committee.

“It’s a shame,” said David Stock, chairman of the Faculty Senate, which must approve honorary degrees before recommending them to the president and the Board of Regents. “It’s something that happened and it’s been done and we have to somehow make the best of it, I guess.”

Given their druthers, “a lot of us would prefer that it just quietly go away,” Stock said.

, DataTimes