Rite of Spring

The academic gown, once worn every day for warmth in unheated northern European universities, needs restyling each 50 years or so to keep academe from feeling too stodgy. Last week, at graduation, Columbia showed its new doctoral dress. Slate grey with a facing of black velvet replaces the black that is customary in the U.S. A four-cornered soft tarn with a gold tassel replaces the stiff mortarboard. The university thoughtfully advised academic plumage-watchers to note the border of the hood for "the color indicating the discipline to which the degree pertains: arts and letters, including journalism, white; theology, scarlet; law, purple; medicine, green; philosophy, dark blue; science, yellow; architecture and the fine arts, brown; music, pink; dentistry, lilac; engineering, orange; pharmacy, olive; business, drab; library service, lemon; education, light blue; international affairs, peacock blue; social work, citron."

With that polychromatic reminder, the season for kudos was on. As usual, a few honorary degrees seemed like favors for native sons, a few like come-ons for endowment money, a few like means of publicizing an obscure school by honoring a name larger than its own. A certain amount of academic backslapping was noticeable, the kind C. P. Snow had in mind in The Affair when he wrote, "Cambridge dons are not distinguished men. They are just men who confer distinctions upon one another." Yet most honorary degrees are the well-earned accolades of an open society to men of merit. Noteworthy last week:

Brown University

SIR DAVID ORMSBY GORE, British Ambassador to the U.S LL.D.

California State Colleges JOHN F. KENNEDY, President of the U.S LL.D.

He has, with great courage, confronted the issue of survival of civilization and of freedom for our people and all peoples.

Catholic University

ROBERT I. GANNON, S.J., former president of Fordham University. . .L.H.D.

Colby College

EARL WARREN, Chief Justice of the U.S LL.D.

Columbia University HAMILTON FISH ARMSTRONG, editor,

author, diplomat LL.D.

WALTER HALLSTEIN, president of the European Economic Community..LL.D. Luis MUNOZ MARIN, Governor, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico LL.D.

DEAN RUSK, Secretary of State. . LL.D. MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN, President, U.N.I TthGeneral Assembly..LL.D.

You have helped the West to know the East in a world grown suddenly small.

Curry College

JOSEPH C. CRESCIO, former captain of detectives, Massachusetts state police, who rounded up 18 bank robbers in 1950-51 Sc.D.

Franklin and Marshall College ROY E. LARSEN, chairman, Executive

Committee, Time Inc L.H.D.

He exemplifies in his many activities the modern public-spirited man at his best, the distinguished practical man of affairs, politissimus propriis humanitatis artibus . . . WILLIAM W. SCRANTON, Governor of

Pennsylvania LL.D.

Applauded by a national audience admiring (and envious of) his virtuosity on the dance floor, respected by political supporters and foes alike for the skill and understanding-even the austerity -with which he conducts governmental affairs, he comes to his high office thoroughly trained in the requirements and the responsibilities of the man in public office.

Howard University

LANGSTON HUGHES, poet Litt.D.

SAMUEL M. NABRIT, president, Texas Southern University Sc.D.

Illinois College JAMES A. VAN ALLEN, physicist.. Sc.D.

Explorer of infinite space whose name is written in the heavens.

Manhattanville College

of the Sacred Heart

FRANK H. BOWLES, president, College Entrance Examination Board.... LL.D.

Marquefte University NATHAN M. PUSEY, president, Harvard

University LL.D.

GEORGE BAGSHAWE HARRISON, Shakespearean scholar Litt.D.

Mount Holyoke College U THANT, Secretary-General of the

United Nations LL.D.

First citizen of the world.

Nasson College ANDREW WYETH, painter D.F.A.

Described as the painstaking microscopist of the familiar, we pay our respects to you for the integrity and independence of your artistic work.

New York University LIEUT. GENERAL (ret.) JAMES M. GAVIN, president, Arthur D. Little, Inc., and World War II commander of the 82nd

Airborne Division LL.D.

ROBERT FRANCIS GOHEEN, president,

Princeton University LL.D.

LUDWIG VON MISES, economist. LL.D. -For his great scholarship, his masterly exposition of the philosophy of the free market, and his advocacy of a free society.

Russell Sage College GWENDOLEN CARTER, professor of government, Smith College, and chairman of the political committee of the Advisory Council on African Affairs of the U.S. State Department L.H.D.

St. Bernard College

THE MOST REV. JOHN P. CODY, apostolic administrator of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans. LL.D.

A leading Roman Catholic prelate engaged in building the City of Man in such fashion that it mirrors the eternal truths and values of the City of God.

St. Norbert College

DOUGLAS M. KNIGHT, president, Lawrence College, and president-elect, Duke University Litt.D.

University of Alaska LIEUT. GENERAL (ret.) JAMES H. DooLITTLE LL.D.

ROBERT SHAW, associate conductor, Cleveland Orchestra, and founder of the Robert Shaw Chorale D.F.A.

University of California at Berkeley WILLIAM FRANCIS GIAUGUE, Nobel prizewinner in chemistry LL.D.

University of California at Los Angeles WALT ELIAS DISNEY D.F.A.

Master magician of the motion picture

and television screen who created not a better mousetrap, but a better mouse.

RUDOLF CARNAP, philosopher of science

and professor emeritus U.C.L.A.. LL.D.

University of Colorado HAROLD R. KEABLES, teacher of English at Denver's South High School (TIME, May 23, 1960) D.H.

University of Denver

SARVEPALLI RADHAKRISHNAN, President of India LL.D.

University of Maryland LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, Vice President of the U.S LL.D.

All America gratefully recalls his skillful stewardship through Congress of this nation's first civil rights legislation in more than eight decades.

University of Michigan SIR CHARLES PERCY SNOW, novelist and scientist L.H.D.

NATHAN BROWNE EDDY, consultant on narcotics to the National Institutes of

Health Sc.D.

Having devoted a lifetime to the study of narcotic drugs, Dr. Eddy has attained a fuller and surer understanding of their nature than any other living man.

University of Santa Clara ALFRED JOSEPH HITCHCOCK, film director D.H.L.

A colossus of the macabre, a master of delightful fantasy and outrageous homicide.

University of Scranton DONALD H. MCGANNON, president, Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. .L.H.D.

A creative broadcaster, one without peer in the adolescent, restless world of Communication.

Upsala College

CLEANTH BROOKS, Gray Professor of Rhetoric at Yale University D.H.

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