The Doctors

Every year, with ceremonial flourishes, U.S. colleges and universities hand out some 1,500 honorary degrees. Who gets them? To answer the question, Teachers Stephen E. Epler and P. H. Putnam of Portland, Ore. examined the records of seven major campuses,* last week published their findings in School and Society.

In the four years after World War II, Epler and Putnam found, the seven schools gave out 244 honorary degreesa 74% increase over their average yearly rate in the 1920s. Nearly half the degrees went to scholars, scientists and educators. Businessmen, who seldom if ever got degrees before the Civil War, now get a modest 8%. Generals and admirals (10%) have had the biggest postwar boom. Clergymen are slipping; a century ago they made up 45% of the honoris causa list, after World War II, 5%.

* Harvard, Smith, Columbia, the Universities of Wisconsin, California (Berkeley), Nebraska and North Carolina.

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