<p>This really angers me!! </p>
<p>The way colleges just hand out degrees to anyone who comes to make a commencement speech, it's the least they can do for this poor girl!!</p>
<p>I'm not quite sure how I feel about this right now. On the one hand, I feel horrible for the young woman and her family. I've been through the brain tumor and hospice situation with a close family member. It's heart breaking beyond describing. However, the "make a wish" type request can only go so far before it becomes inappropriate. It's one thing to want to go somewhere, meet someone, do something. It's another to ask for something that one hasn't earned. I'm trying to wrap my head around the whole thing, because I can't understand why an unearned degree would give anyone any real sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, or happiness. Just confused I guess.</p>
<p>Tough one. She has earned enough credits for an AA but doesn't "want" that one awarded. And there is some question as to whether she can still go back and earn a degree re: the statements she made about still working at earning the degree. It sounds like her situation is not curable but not immediately terminal. </p>
<p>Didn't Virginia Tech award degrees posthumously to all those who lost their lives recently, even those who had not "earned" it? Totally different situation, of course. And I am sure that in that case the University was worried they could have been a little "responsible" and that the degree awards were the "least" they could do. </p>
<p>Sad situation. But I can also see FIU's point of view.</p>
<p>This is the college's decision.'
"FIU has instead offered Panagos an Associates of Arts degree, which she has satisfied the requirements for. "</p>
<p>It makes sense to me. Another way the college could compromise would be by awarding her an honorary bachelor's degree. That would be a nice way of recognizing her hard work.</p>
<p>there have been many instances where colleges offer posthumanous degrees to students nearing graduation. The young woman has earned 129 ch's and is dying for crying out loud. Now is the time to show compassion and grant her the degree. Or they can be bureaucratic and demonstrate a crass lack of humanity.</p>
<p>But she's not nearing graduation. She's far from graduation according to the story. That's why giving an AA or an honorary bachelors makes sense to me.</p>
<p>"The FIU Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences says Panagos never came close to fulfilling course requirements for any one major. "It's a sad case," said Mark Szuchman. "There are no words one can explain to someone what such a loss would mean, but awarding the degree or awarding any degree is a recognition of completion of certain sets of credentials, and that the record does not show."</p>
<p>Panagos says getting the degree would mean a lot to her because she says she has worked so hard.</p>
<p>But Szuchman says the University is bound by educational standards set by the government, also by academic principles of equity. They don't award generic degrees and honorary degrees go to dignitaries with a lifetime of achievement"</p>
<p>I don't see why they can't give her an honorary degree.</p>