Dear Colleagues, 

We invite you to nominate candidates to receive honorary degrees from the University of Pennsylvania at the 2018 Commencement ceremony and beyond. Candidates should exemplify the highest ideals of the University, which seek to educate those who will change the world through innovative scholarship, scientific discovery, artistic creativity, and/or societal leadership. 

We encourage you to involve your faculty colleagues, within and across departments and schools, in the nomination process. Nominations should detail how nominees meet the criteria for selection and outline the nominees’ achievements and contributions. Please include as much biographical and other supporting information as possible, but do not contact the nominees, who should not know that they are being considered. We particularly encourage nominations from departments and schools whose fields have not been recognized by the awarding of honorary degrees in recent years. Please note that it is University policy not to consider Penn standing faculty, trustees or school and center overseers for Penn honorary degrees. Nominations for the University Commencement speaker are also considered through this honorary degrees selection process. 

Nominations are welcome any time, but for consideration by this year’s University Council Honorary Degrees Committee, it would be helpful to have them in hand by November 15. Review is ongoing and candidates may ultimately be selected several years after their initial nominations. The University Council Committee’s recommendations are forwarded to the Trustee Committee on Honorary Degrees and Awards for final selection. A list of previous University of Pennsylvania honorary degree recipients can be found here.

Please send signed letters of nomination on your official stationery to: University Council Committee on Honorary Degrees, c/o Office of the University Secretary, 1 College Hall, Room 211/6303. Additional information on the honorary degrees process and an online nomination form can be found here. If you have any questions, please contact Lynne Sniffen or call (215) 898-7005.

Penn emeritus faculty are eligible to receive honorary degrees through a special nomination process. University deans propose candidates for consideration by the Council of Deans. The Council’s nominations are then reviewed by the President and Provost, and final selection is made by the Trustee Committee on Honorary Degrees.

Honorary degrees are important statements of Penn’s values and aspirations, and we strongly encourage your participation in this process. 

 ––Amy Gutmann, President

––Daniel Raff, Chair, University Council Committee on Honorary Degrees