School of the Art Institute of Chicago has faced opposition for its decision to award Kanye West with an honorary doctorate at its 2015 commencement ceremony in May.
West has yet to respond to critics who believe he is undeserving of the degree, but the school’s Dean and President recently spoke to The Fader about their decision.
Within the interview, President Walter E. Massey and Dean of Faculty Lisa Wainwright stand behind their choice.
The honorary doctorate, Massey says, “is to recognize people who have attained excellence in some area of activity that your institution recognizes. We think Kanye has done that for us.”
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SAIC also plans to honor AIC director Douglas Druick, gallerist Rhona Hoffman, artist and alum Janet Byrne Neiman and German painter Albert Oehlen.
While deciding on a speaker for this year’s graduating class, Wainwright says West’s name came up toward the end of the administration’s deliberations.
“It was perfect timing: we hadn’t finalized our discussion,” she says. “We got word from Twitter that he said something about his wishing he got his degree from the Art Institute. We thought, ‘Wow, this is wonderful that he’s mentioning us, that he’s mentioning art school again.’ We reached out to him.”
“We sent him a formal letter, of course, and he’s very honored,” Massey adds. “He’s very moved by it. I can’t speak for him, but I can imagine…We are a very interdisciplinary institution, and what he does cuts across so many disciplines. We have a course in our liberal arts program on Hip Hop, and Kanye is a subject of study in that course. He is both inside of and critical of systems; he is enthusiastically engaged in creating while also critiquing. We have faculty members who use him as the subject of their teaching, so this is perfect.”
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West isn’t the only graduation speaker that was not well received. In years past, the school received backlash for inviting artist Jeff Koons and the feminist female artist collective known as the Guerilla Girls. One member spoke to students with a Gorilla mask on.
Still, despite the concerns, graduation tickets are a “real problem” already, according to Wainwright.
The Dean of Faculty admits to listening to rap and Kanye because it is the genre her 16-year-old son prefers.
“I’ve been listening to Kanye, and he’s remarkable,” she says. “I mean, it’s a really fantastic sound. The sound itself, the music is phenomenal, and then the lyrics. I’m watching ‘Black Skinhead,’ that one is amazing to me. That’s just such a powerful lyric, and very danceable, which is my criterion. ‘Jesus Walks,’ that’s another one I think is really just powerful, powerful, powerful lyrics.”
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