ABSTRACT
Kermit the Frog won an honorary degree from Southampton College the other day, a "doctorate of amphibious letters." Apparently the first non-mammal to earn a degree on Long Island, Kermit was nice enough to deliver the keynote address, most of it in his familiar rat-a-tat co-medic style. Often a degree has to be dangled to attract a well-known speaker, and graduates pay so little attention to commencement talks that few will care (or remember) whether the speaker was Mother Theresa or Rocky and Bullwinkle. Still, it seems clear that colleges no longer show much ability to resist entertainment values and the marketing power of the celebrity culture. Since colleges tend to be financially desperate consumer-driven places now, the curriculum is now more entertaining, more open to popular tastes. Courses on Batman, comic strips and TV shows are routine. Yale offers one on "Troubadours and Rock Stars," possibly covering the career of Dr. Sting, a recent honorary degree winner.
