The Massachusetts Institute of Technology does not hand out honorary degrees.  Most colleges and Universities hand out honorary doctorates to visiting dignitaries in exchange for contributions or other “meritorious” service.  This practice lends itself to all sort of abuse and nepotism but when MIT’s founder, William Barton Rogers, set up this university in 1868 he vowed that every MIT degree was to be earned by academic labor alone. This tradition of meritocracy that traces its origin back to Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the University of Virginia.

While MIT regards the practice of giving honorary degrees as “literary almsgiving … of spurious merit and noisy popularity,” you can EARN and honorary degree from MIT if you take the right four courses as part of your Physical Education requirement.  MIT’s Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation (DAPER) has a pirate program that helps its students fulfill general physical education requirements.  Students who attend the university (sorry this is not a nondegree seeking option) can earn a certificate in piracy by completing four classes — sailing, fencing, pistol shooting, and archery — and then taking the school’s secret pirate oath.

Earning the right to call yourself a pirate once meant purchasing a ship and being granted a letter of marque then living a rough-and-tumble life on the seas, robbing ships, and dodging the Royal Navy.  Now all you need to do is attend a few PE courses and – voila, you’re a pirate!  Well, sort of …

MIT began offering the optional certificate in 2012 as a way for students to enjoy fulfilling the school’s physical education requirements.  Campus lore claims that students who completed the four courses began calling themselves pirates in jest sometime between the late 1990s and early 2000s, though it took years for the school to make the campus caper into an official award. Today, MIT’s Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation issues the awards, and the school — which traditionally abstains from giving out honorary degrees — has even bestowed a pirate certificate upon actor Matt Damon for his “swashbuckling appreciation for science, engineering, and space exploration.”

MIT is careful, however, to point out that this pirate certificate doesn’t actually give students license to engage in any high-seas larceny business.  For that you still need to win a GOP primary.

---

Want to have the
Regimental Brewmeister
at your site or event?

You can hire me.

https://colonialbrewer.com/yes-you-can-hire-me-for-your-event-or-site/