McElroy, Yang, Boulanger May Get Honorary Degrees

It's getting to be that time of year when seniors wonder who will make their graduation famous by receiving honorary degrees at Commencement. With due sense of humility about the embarrassment it may cause to some but with its mission of truth firmly in mind, the CRIMSON takes some pleasure in announcing its Third Annual Name the Honoraries Contest.

In past years, the CRIMSON has attempted to throw contestants off the track by publishing a largely misleading list of possibilities. In fact, only one of our choices received the Call to the Black Robes in 1957. This year, however the CRIMSON takes the wraps off a genuine list of inside tips compiled with the aid of local racetrack prognosticator Clocker Spanielle.

Honorary degrees, of course, are awarded according to a system with which any gambling-minded contest entrant should be familiar. There are various categories of achievement which must be recognized at every Harvard Commencement--politics, religion, the arts, education, and what not.

Top money in the political field this year is on Defense Secretary Neil H. McElroy '25.

It is also customary to give a degree to some foreign statesman, and inside sources reveal that this year Pierre Pflimlin, who according to rumor will be "vacationing in the Bay State in early June," will be honored.

Mme. Nadia Boulanger admirably fits three categories at once and thus seems assured of a degree. The noted French choir-director and conductor is prominent both as an artist and as a foreigner, and also fills the Corporation's apparent requirement of honoring a woman.

In the field of science and education, the University cannot risk being out-shone by the Nobel Prize Committee and will therefore grant a degree to Chen Ning Yang, present Loeb Lecturer in Physics here and one of the young Columbia professors who upset the Law of Parity last fall.

First prize in the CRIMSON contest will be $25, and the award for second, as usual, will be a second-hand copy of the Yearbook. All entrants should submit a list of eight names to 14 Plympton St. before June 11.