AMUSING DEGREES.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 148, 2 September 1926, Page 5

AMUSING DEGREES.

CONFERRED IN AMERICA. The brand new degree of Doctor of Longitude and Latitude has been conferred on Lieutenant-Commander Byrd, i the first man to fly over the North Polo, j It is almost superfluous to add that this ; distinction originates in America, the ; home of new and astonishing degrees. I. It is a ciitigatiye circumstance that in this instance the diploma has been conferred by an eminently serious institution, the American Geographical Society. The educational institutions of the United States, however, give themselves a wide range of latitude (as well as longitude) in the bestowal of degrees. There is, for instance, a Professorship of Plumbing at the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburg. Cornell University lias a special course in the management of hotels, and grants to proficients a “D.H. ” or Diploma of Hospitality. The California Board of Education has conferred, on Miss Blanche Adelia Hawkins Diploma in the Art and Process of Whistling, which entitles her to use the initials' 1 ‘B.A.Wh.” . The University of California has a degree. which is indicated by the let,ters VS.W.D.CaI.,” showing that the recipient has received a degree for film scenario writing. Even dignified Harvard has a <^ D.D.W., ,, which signifies a Diploma: in Dramatic Writing. New York University confers, among other distinctions, those of or Master of Business Administration, and “BUn.,'* Bachelor of Domestic Science, a twin degree to the “B.H.S. ” of Toronto University—Bachelor of Household Science. Toronto also confers a “8.P.,” or Bachelor of Pedagogy, a height to which Harvard has not yet aspired, although it gives a << D.1.M., ,, or Diploma in Industrial Medicine. Other quaint American degrees include Bachelor of Humanics, Bachelor of Physical Education, and Bacholor of Accounts—abbreviated to ‘‘B.Accs. ”