The establishment or discontinuance of degrees conferred by the university is a responsibility of the Board of Trustees. The board acts on recommendations of the University Faculty, which, in turn, makes its recommendations with the approval of the school or college concerned. The requirements for the various degrees offered are determined by the individual school and college faculties. The University Faculty has established two universal requirements for all undergraduate degree candidates: the swim test and two semesters of physical education. New York State law mandates that curricula and course work shall be based on an average of thirty credit or semester hours for each year of full‐time study.
By tradition, Cornell University does not award honorary degrees. Only two departures have been made from this practice and those occurred in the early days of the university. Honorary degrees were awarded to Andrew Dickson White, the universityʹs first president, and to David Starr Jordan, a member of the first class and the first president of Stanford University.9.
