Northwestern University withdrew an invitation for the Reverend Jeremiah Wright to receive an honorary degree at this year's commencement.
Wright, former pastor to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, was selected to be honored at the June ceremony in Evanston, Illinois, on the recommendation of faculty committees, Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations, said in a statement.

``In light of the controversy around Dr. Wright and to ensure the celebratory character of commencement not be affected, the university has withdrawn its invitation to Dr. Wright,'' Cubbage said.

Obama, an Illinois senator, has repeatedly denounced Wright's statements, which have included praise for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and a suggestion that the U.S. government was capable of developing AIDS to infect black people.

Wright's statements ``offend me, they rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced and that's what I'm doing very clearly and unequivocally today,'' Obama said in a news conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on April 29.

Obama's relationship with Wright came under renewed scrutiny when his former pastor repeated some of his statements, including that U.S. policy was partly to blame for the Sept. 11 attacks, during a speech at the National Press Club in Washington on April 28.

Each year, Northwestern awards Honorary Degrees to a number of men and women of exceptional accomplishment. Past recipients include scholars, artists, actors, writers, musicians, politicians, and social leaders.

The Nomination Process
Nominations are sought each spring by the faculty Committee on Honorary Degrees. Any person may make a nomination. Nominations for Honorary Degrees are initiated by sending a vita or brief biography and a letter of recommendation stating in some detail the reasons for the nomination. Materials should be sent to:

Secretary, Committee on Honorary Degrees
Office of the Provost
Rebecca Crown Center
Evanston Campus

The quality of the supporting materials is very important, since the members of the Committee cannot be assumed to have independent knowledge of each candidate's achievements. Nominating letters should be received no later than August 1 of the year prior to the year in which the degree might be awarded.

To guide it in its work, the Committee on Honorary Degrees has adopted the following criteria for reviewing nominations:

Honorary degrees at Northwestern are awarded principally to those who have distinguished themselves in the fields of teaching, learning, research, writing, and performance in the arts. In limited numbers, however, those who have achieved distinction through their special contributions to society at large or more specifically to Northwestern University and its community are appropriate candidates.

Achievement or accomplishment of national or international significance should be the overriding criterion for all recipients, except those who are being honored for service to our community. A recipient should be one who will lend distinction to the University.

Special efforts should be made to identify candidates whose most important contributions are on the cutting edge of discoveries or accomplishments in their field at the time of selection.

It behooves the University to recognize the distinction of its own graduates.

As a matter of course, current members of the faculty at Northwestern or those who have retired from the faculty are not normally considered, nor are the members of the Board of Trustees or of the University administration, except in the case of a retiring president or chairman of the Board.

The University should be careful that the awarding of a degree not be politically motivated or appear to be so.

Review by the University Senate
Recommendations of the Committee on Honorary Degrees are generally reviewed and voted on by the University Senate each fall. The Senate then transmits its recommendations to the Board of Trustees.

Approval by the Board of Trustees
The award of Honorary Degrees follows approval by the University's Board of Trustees. Only following action by the Board of Trustees are invitations issued to persons on whom such degrees might be conferred.