Boston College faculty oppose honorary degree for Condi

Boston College students and faculty are at it again. In 1995, former British PM Margaret Thatcher had to decline the university’s offer to receive a medal after Irish students and professors objected to her handling of the Northern Ireland conflict. Now students and faculty are organizing in opposition to an honorary degree that the university had planned to present to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is to supposed to give the university’s 2006 graduation address.

More than 150 of the college’s 1,000 faculty members have signed on to a letter circulated by theology professors Rev. David Hollenbach and Kenneth Himes that argues that Rice’s involvement in the Iraq war runs counter to “Boston College’s commitment to the values of the Catholic and Jesuit traditions and is inconsistent with the humanistic values that inspire the University’s work.”