🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <JOANNAB.92Nov30152949@stoat.aisb.ed.ac.uk>, joannab@aisb.ed.ac.uk (Joanna Bryson) writes:

<<<< talk about Jacques Delors getting an honorary degree from Edinburgh >>>>
> Actually, I was at said ceremony, and some people got the impression that
> they gave it to him to force him to hear the vice-chancellors speech about
> how education in the UK is being totally destroyed and the diploma's he had
> just handed out couldn't possibly worth as much as the ones he'd handed out
> a few years ago.  In case this sounds like a slightly depressing topic for
> a graduation ceremony speech, he then went on to say something silly about
> the black thingy he was bonking people in the head with in an effort to 
> lighten the tone.  Kind of a case of making up for insulting our education
> by insulting our intelligence...  (not that I didn't agree with the VC's 
> speech!!!)
> 
> Joanna

Ummm, you're thinking of George Younger who just received one of the
honorary degrees in the usual Nov. ceremony, on Saturday.
Delors gets his at a special ceremony on Dec 10th, just before
the summit meeting and deliberately arranged that way.....
We have yet to find out what the v-c will see fit to say to him.

I thought the recipients of honorary degrees themselves usually got to
make a speech and was suprised when this didn't happen on Saturday.
Did this happen in the past or am I thinking of the speech given
by some university dignitary on why the person was to be so honoured ?
I remember thinking that the first one went on for so long that
we'd be there all day if the others took so long and being
relieved when they didn't. 

By the way, for anyone that didn't hear it, the vice-chancellors'
graduation address is usually published in ``Bulletin'', if you
can wait that long. 

-- 
Claire
ccmj@dcs.ed.ac.uk
(I don't know why I bother with a signature really, all the information
 in it appears (more concisely) in the header right before my eyes.)