Honorary Degree Procedures

Proposed by the Faculty Senate & Approved by the College Council in 1989

Honorary degrees shall be awarded in accordance with the City University of New York Bylaws and the Guidelines of the Board of Trustees. The procedure shall be as follows:

1.  Any member of the John Jay community may nominate a person for an honorary degree. To be valid, nominations for honorary degrees must be received by the Committee on Honorary Degrees by a date established and publicized to the College community by the Committee.

2.  a.  The Committee on Honorary Degrees shall consist of seven tenured full-time members of the faculty, who hold the rank of assistant, associate, full, or distinguished professor, and who are nominated by, but not restricted to, members of the Faculty Senate and who are elected by the Faculty Senate by secret ballot to serve three-year terms.  Members of the Committee may stand for election to additional three-year terms, upon nomination by the Faculty Senate.

      b.  The members of the Committee on Honorary Degrees shall elect the chairperson of the Committee, for a two-year term, from among the members of the Committee.  The Chair may be elected by the Committee for additional 2-year terms.

3.  The Committee on Honorary Degrees shall examine, on a confidential basis and, except for the chairperson of the Committee, without knowledge of the identity of the nominators, the credentials of nominees for honorary degrees and shall recommend, in a timely fashion, worthy candidates to the Faculty Senate. 

4.   The Faculty Senate shall meet in closed session, which shall be open only to members of the Faculty Senate and any guest(s) invited by the Senate or its Executive Committee, to consider the candidates recommended by the Committee. After confidential deliberation, and without knowledge of the identity of the nominators, the Faculty Senate shall vote by secret ballot on the proposed candidates and shall forward the names of those candidates who have been approved for an honorary degree by a three-quarters affirmative vote of those members of the Faculty Senate present and voting to the President of the College for his or her approval and transmission to the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees for their approval.  

5.  If the number of honorary degree candidates approved by the Faculty Senate exceeds the number of honorary degrees that the CUNY Board of Trustees permits be granted at an academic convocation or commencement ceremony, then the Faculty Senate shall vote by secret ballot to rank order the approved candidates and shall transmit its recommendations to the President

6.   It shall be the responsibility of the President of the College, or of his or her designee, to inform forthwith each candidate approved by the Faculty Senate and by the President to receive an honorary degree that he or she has been so selected.  In addition, the President of the College, or designee, shall inform the candidate that the conferral of the honorary degree is conditional on the approval of the CUNY Chancellor and of the CUNY Board of Trustees and that it is also conditional on the candidate’s attendance at the commencement or convocation ceremony at which the award is to be conferred, which is a requirement of the CUNY Board of Trustees.

7.  If a candidate approved by the Faculty Senate and informed by the President of the College agrees to accept the honorary degree but is unable to attend the commencement ceremony or convocation, then the invitation shall be extended by the President of the College until the following commencement or convocation, but such an extension shall be for a maximum of three years.  

8.  Candidates approved by the Faculty Senate and by the President of the College may be invited by the President to receive an honorary degree for a period of up to three years from the date of Faculty Senate approval.  In this way, there can be established and maintained a queue of approved candidates which can facilitate the process, given the demanding schedules of such highly meritorious individuals.

9.  An invitation or an extension of an invitation to receive an honorary degree shall be rescinded if the Faculty Senate, in consultation with the Committee on Honorary Degrees, or the President of the College, in consultation with the Faculty Senate and the Committee on Honorary Degrees, determines that this is in the best interests of the College.  Similarly, a candidate who has been approved but who has not yet been invited may be removed from the queue by the same process as the one described above.

10. The Faculty Senate shall recommend to the President of the College which candidate or candidates shall be invited to speak at the commencement or convocation ceremony, although it shall be the right of the President to make the final decision as to who shall be the speaker(s).

11.  If a recipient of an honorary degree from John Jay College subsequently engages in documented behavior that is inimical to the values for which the honorary degree had been awarded, or if a recipient of an honorary degree from John Jay College is discovered to have engaged in documented behavior prior to having received the degree that would have rendered the person ineligible or undeserving of the degree if that behavior had been known, the Faculty Senate may consult with the President of the College and with the Committee on Honorary Degrees and shall, in a closed session meeting, consider recommending to the CUNY Board of Trustees that it revoke the honorary degree. If at least three-quarters of the Senators, present and voting by secret ballot, conclude that the documented behavior is so egregious that the honorary degree should be revoked, the Faculty Senate shall forward its recommendation to the CUNY Board of Trustees for action by that body.

12.  The awarding of honorary degrees shall accord with the principles of pluralism and diversity to which the University is committed.

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Faculty - definition: Faculty, for the purposes of this Procedure, comprises those full-time members of the faculty who hold the rank of distinguished professor; professor; associate professor; assistant professor; instructor; lecturer; distinguished lecturer. 

Last amended by the College Council: November 11, 2024