Content area
Full Text
-Former Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis stunned an audience by declining an honorary degree from Philadelphia's Haverford College because of faculty objections to his alleged role in breaking the air traffic controllers strike in 1981. "There is no consensus on this degree when one-third of your faculty objects," Lewis told 1,000 people at the Quaker college's commencement ceremonies. He then lifted off his purple doctoral hood as the stunned audience broke into a standing ovation. Lewis, 54, a 1953 Haverford graduate and former member of the college's Board of Managers, refused to accept the doctorate after he learned that 28 faculty members had signed a letter protesting his alleged attempt to break the union representing air traffic controllers who violated their no-strike oath and staged a bitter walkout in 1981. When the dispute was resolved, the Reagan Administration refused to allow the strike participants to return to their jobs. At the graduation, Lewis discarded his prepared speech and defended his role as transportation secretary during the incident. "I think that protest with the facts is very commendable. In this case, I don't feel that those of you who are protesting understand the facts," he said. Haverford President Ronald F. Thiemann called Lewis' decision "an act of great courage and integrity."