President Ruth Simmons will announce this spring's recipients of honorary degrees at Tuesday's faculty meeting.
The recipients are in the fields of arts, science, education, service to Brown and humanitarian service, said Tracie Sweeney, senior associate director of the Brown News Service.
The Faculty Advisory Committee on Honorary Degrees selects candidates to be considered for honorary degrees, said William Risen, professor of chemistry and member of the committee. From this list, the Corporation's Board of Fellows selects honorary degree recipients.
"You're looking for very high qualities," Risen said. "People with a special connection with Brown University whose merits have specifically furthered the values of Brown University."
"By giving an honorary degree to something that is not only academic, you are actually showing, symbolizing in a sense, the type of (accomplishment) that this university values," Risen added.
Last year, Brown awarded honorary degress to actress Laura Linney '86, RISD President Roger Mandle, Georgia Sen. Samuel Nunn, artist and art historian Lowrey Stokes Sims, biochemist Joan Argetsinger Steitz, former U.N. secretariat Sir Brian Urquhart and Chinese activist and dissident Xu Wenli.
In September, the University awarded former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev an honorary doctorate of law.
This week, the committee will solicit suggestions for next year's candidates from students, said Leo Depuydt, associate professor of Egyptology and chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee on Honorary Degrees. Later in the process, the committee will solicit suggestions from faculty.
The faculty advisory committee consists of seven faculty members, one graduate student representative and two undergraduate student representatives, according to the University's faculty governance Web site.
