Students petition to rescind Mugabe's honorary degree

Students at the University of Massachusetts have petitioned to have the honorary degree presented to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe revoked because they believe that he has since fallen from being a good world citizen.

Mugabe, presented with the honor in 1986 during a special convocation at the Amherst campus, was then praised as a humane revolutionary who ended an oppressive White rule to establish an independent Zimbabwe in 1979. He has since been increasingly viewed as a dictator and tyrant.

A petition was circulated at the Boston campus, according to Bill Wright, director of public information, University of Massachusetts, President's Office.

"Plans are to present it to the university's 22 board of trustees, which includes five student members," he said. They will meet in June.

Wright added that the university "does not have a policy for rescinding." The university isn't the only school observing the matter. Mugabe received an honorary degree in 1984 from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The issue regarding the degree was under review, according to officials there. And Michigan State University presented him with an honorary degree in 1990. They've received letters requesting that his degree be rescinded and have stopped its study abroad program in Zimbabwe.

--Margena A. Christian Associated Press contributed to this report

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