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Honorary Degree For Sen. James Jeffords Loudly Applauded At Middlebury College

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Tuesday June 6, 2006

By Ed Barna

    There’s an art to giving honorary degrees. A college has to balance its wishes to thank long-time members of the college community, draw attention to worthy but lesser-known contributors to society, and perhaps, if possible, bring onstage some major public figure.

Middlebury College seemed to have gotten everything right in awarding an honorary doctor of laws degree to James Merrill Jeffords, for 32 years either a Representative or Senator from Vermont in Washington. Closing out a career that will long be remembered for his withdrawal from the Republican Party (see his own books “My Declaration of Independence” and “An Independent Man: Adventures of a Public Servant” for more) which postponed the great national experiment in right-wing dominance now under way, his appearance onstage was greeted with louder applause than that of any other honoree.

That included the commencement speaker, Ann Veneman. As executive director of UNICEF, she gave a talk on growing globalization and the need to help less fortunate countries that would have had a greater impact had not about 10 percent of the students listening been from other countries, at a college that had not recently affiliated with another institution to expand its range of overseas study opportunities.

Also, in previous roles as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and as a corporate lobbyist, Veneman had favored big agribusiness over small farmers, critics of the decision said. Among those publicly saying her appearance contradicted College values and ethics was Tara Sun Vanacore, a graduate from Bridport, whose grandmother Lihua Yu was honored as an influential Chinese writer and as mother of Anna Sun, coordinator of the Chinese and Japanese Schools.

But that controversy was carried out largely in the pages of the student newspaper The Campus, not in public on the warm and sunny day that graced the outdoor ceremony. And one of the sunniest moments came in presenting Jeffords with his degree, after the cheers and applause had subsided.

The commencement program included one summary of the Shrewsbury  resident and Brandon forest land owner’s achievements. In the House from 1975-1988 and the Senate from 1989 on, “he has championed legislation to strengthen the nation’s education system and increase opportunities for people with disabilities,” it said, and noted that he had been “a leading advocate for environmental protection,” especially in moving forward the Clean Air Act of 1990.

Not forgotten was the way “he has consistently fought for financial support of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.” The awards for his work include Parenting Magazine’s Legislator of the Year in 1999, the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award in 2002.

Further back, he had been Vermont’s Attorney General from 1969-1973 (Doctor of Laws, remember) and a State Senator from his birthplace Rutland in 1967-68.

But in bestowing the honor, college President Ronald Liebowitz did not simply read the program’s citation. He went even further back, noting that Jeffords had been educated at both Yale and Harvard, and that he had served in the Navy. Beyond championing “causes that Vermonters hold dear,” he had “stood on principle” in leaving the party with which he had long been associated, and “in the process you showed that nation just how independent Vermonters can be.”

Liebowitz recalled that on one occasion, Jeffords said that if he had to pick one film emblematic of his life, it would be “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” “It’s a wholesome film,” Leibowitz said, one that portrays an era when “people were driven by ethics more than money.”

“When you retire this year, the Senate loses the model to which all Senators should aspire,” Liebowitz said. Here in Vermont, he said, “We welcome you home with open arms.”

And loud applause, which lasted a little more than half a minute.

In Middlebury, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” can be rented as a VHS tape at Waterfront Video and Showtime.

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