During the campus turmoil of the late 1960s, Washington University Chancellor Thomas H. Eliot dismissed student protests by claiming that Wash. U. students were “birds of passage” who would strut and fret their four years on the academic stage and then be heard no more.

While I have many faults, I still have a good memory and that phrase has stuck with me for almost 40 years. Chancellor Eliot started transforming Wash. U. from a commuter-school for the wealthy scions of St. Louis families, not smart enough to be admitted to the Ivy Leagues, to a top-ten school under the vaunted U.S. News & World Report standings. Furthermore, he was also a former U.S. Congressman who is credited with co-authoring the Social Security bill in the 1930s.

While many of us (who are now of course nearing Social Security status ourselves) were offended by Eliot’s “birds” comment, he was probably correct. Only a few alumni from my era are modest givers and show up at reunions. An even smaller group cares about what happens on campus. That’s why the University generally reacts to student protests and complaints with a “rope-a-dope” strategy, figuring it will do nothing until the year’s flock takes wing.

That’s what the administration did and will do with last spring’s embarrassing Phyllis Schlafly honorary degree fiasco, when Wash. U. honored someone who not only took actions that are anathema to the University, but who has also shown contempt for the very idea of a liberal university. The previous year, Wash. U. honored Paul Harvey, who advocated using nuclear weapons in Iraq.

The Schlafly incident was particularly maddening because the cowardly nominator hasn’t even confessed his or her action.  Two of my classmates who’ve amassed fortunes large enough to be elected to the Wash. U. Board of Trustees responded to my inquiry about how Schlafly got nominated with the Sergeant Schultz defense (“I know nothing,” for those who missed the Hogan’s Heroes era). It’s as if Schlafly nominated herself.

So here’s hoping that the class of 2012 doesn’t just suck up the fine education Wash. U. has to offer and fly away. There is more to life than getting into professional school or moving back to your parent’s basement and working at Starbucks. Get involved and for your first task consider demanding, not necessarily the end to awarding degrees to every right-wing nut, but making the honorary degree process transparent so that there can be a true debate about what Wash. U. stands for and who should be recognized.