N.Y. Times 'Reveals' Controversy About Harvard Degree for Ron

Question: When does no news become big news?

Answer: When it runs in The New York Times.

That's at least what happened when the Times splashed a piece on Wednesday's national page discussing "reverberations that reach to the White House" caused by Harvard's invitation to President Reagan to speak at the University's 350th birthday in September 1986.

Though President Bok's January invitation to Reagan has been public knowledge for months, the Times article has stirred up a flurry of media interest in a reported "controversy" among students and faculty over whether o give Reagan an honorary degree.

Part of the controversy steemed, from an unidentified source who told the Times that Reagan aids had discreetly inquired about whether the president will receive an honorary if he accepts the invite.

Reporters from the wire services, local television stations, The Boston Globe, and even the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have asked the Harvard New Office to explain the debate on campus as to whether Reagan's achievements as president are great enough to earn him an honorary degree from the premier educational institution in the land.

The BBC, according to Marjorie Heffron of the New Office, was interested in drawing parallels with Oxford University's recent refusal to grant an honorary degree to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher when she spoke at the university.

And the Boston Herald lassoed former Secretary of State and onetime Harvard Professor Henry A Kissinger '50 in New York City, where he termed the debate on the honorary degree, "disgraceful...almost obscene."

"It's disgraceful that Harvard University would question whether to give an honorary degree to the president of the United States," Kissinger fumed in the Herald-article modestly headlines, "Henry's 'Crimson' Over Degree Debate."

Amidst all the hoopla, Harvard officials were quickly explaining that the committee that makes degree recommendation has not yet been assembled and that the committee may even decide against awarding honorary degrees-usually reserved for Commencement ceremonies--at the birthday celebration.

Also lost in this tale of Harvard-hates-America was the news that Harvard invited Reagan to speak at its Commencement ceremonies in 1981. Reagan declined the invitation, but had he come to Cambridge, he almost certainly would have received an honorary degree as each year featured speaker traditionally does.

Meanwhile, professor and students, according to Crimson interviews, offered differing opinions or the controversy. And according to White House officials, who deny that they have set an honorary degree as a condition of the president's acceptance. Reagan is still weighing the invitation