The Office of the Secretary recently sent out its yearly appeal asking members of the Columbia community to submit nominations for this year’s honorary degree and University Medal for Excellence recipients. The University aims to honor individuals “across all of the various areas of study and fields of academia.” The only restrictions are that honorees cannot be full-time regular officers of the University and these honors cannot be awarded in absentia. One exception to this rule was the case of Bishop Desmond M. Tutu in 1982.  

On May 19, 1982, at the annual commencement ceremony, there was one empty chair on the platform. This chair was reserved for Desmond M. Tutu, the then Bishop of Lesotho, Secretary-General of the South African Council of Churches, who was to receive an honorary degree. Because of his critical remarks against the South African apartheid system, the government revoked Tutu’s passport and he was unable to travel to New York. Nevertheless, Columbia University President Michael I. Sovern read the Degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology citation:

Desmond M. Tutu, Bishop of Lesotho, Secretary-General of the South African Council of Churches, stalwart and fearless advocate of justice, peace and reconciliation among the peoples of your troubled homeland, Columbia University salutes you. You have become the voice of your oppressed people, a beacon leading them to peaceful resistance to the injustices of apartheid and a symbol of hope for a unified South Africa. Your courageous and outspoken pleas for justice have become an example to the entire free world. It is with pride, admiration and respect that this University confers upon you the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology, honoris causa.

And President Sovern added “We want the government of South Africa to know that the world is watching.”

A few months later, on August 3, 1982, President Sovern, the chair of the Trustees Samuel Higginbottom, and chair emeritus Arthur Krim traveled to South Africa. A special convocation was held at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. And so a degree that was presented at Commencement in absentia was finally delivered in person. (You can find President Sovern and Bishop Tutu’s remarks in The Record.) In 1984, after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Bishop Tutu finally made it to the Columbia campus and delivered a lecture at the Law School.

 

Nominations for honorary degrees and the University Medal of Honor are accepted year round, but the deadline for nominations for this year’s Commencement is Friday, March 7, 2025.