On Sunday night, according to the White House schedule, President Bush will travel to New Haven for an unspecified event the next day. On Monday morning, Yale University, the president's alma mater, will hold its 300th commencement ceremony. And while neither administration will confirm anything, it is hardly a secret that Mr. Bush will receive an honorary degree and speak to the graduating class.
In doing so, Mr. Bush, who graduated from Yale in 1968, will join a long list of American presidents, including his father, who received honorary degrees from the university either before, during or after their terms in office. He also becomes the latest political figure to be criticized as undeserving of the distinction. Three Yale professors began circulating a petition yesterday objecting to the award.
The university has a tradition of not naming honorary degree recipients until the day of graduation. While refusing to confirm the president's attendance, a Yale spokeswoman, Helaine S. Klasky, said it would not be unreasonable to expect both Mr. Bush and some protest.
"Yale is proud of its record in educating leaders and it would be natural to recognize the election of one of our graduates to president of the United States during our tercentennial year," she said, adding: "The selection of a political figure often engenders debate. Vigorous expression of diverse viewpoints is part of the life of the university."
The event will mark Mr. Bush's first visit to Yale since his election as president. He was invited to speak at the university's gala 300th anniversary celebration last month but did not attend. And he did not visit the campus at all during the presidential campaign, or even more recently to see his daughter, Barbara, who just completed her freshman year there, a reflection of his somewhat strained relations with the school.
Over the years, Mr. Bush has made public comments in which he expressed bitterness at the university, largely attributable to the fact that his father was not given an honorary degree until 1991, during his third year as president, even though he had been vice president for eight years and director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The president's paternal grandfather, Senator Prescott Bush, received an honorary degree in 1962.
"The Bushes are to Yale what the Roosevelts were to Harvard, or the Adamses were earlier on," said Gaddis Smith, an emeritus professor of history and an authority on the history of Yale itself. "It's no question it's a political dynasty. The only other political dynasty that Yale had was the Taft dynasty, which only had one member in the White House, not that old Senator Bob Taft didn't try."
For some Yale professors, however, the honor is coming too soon. In their petition, the professors, Bruce Ackerman, Peter Brooks and Robert Shulman, wrote: "None of his first actions as president merits such distinction - not his repudiation of the Kyoto Accords, nor his commitment to a missile defense system, nor his advocacy of a massive tax cut largely benefiting the wealthy."
The three originators of the petition all hold Sterling professorships, the highest honor bestowed on faculty members. They vowed to skip the graduation ceremony in protest. Although they are known for their liberal views, the professors said their complaint was that the award was coming too early in President Bush's tenure in the White House.
"That's why the letter says we wish him well," said Professor Ackerman, who teaches law and political science. "He's the president we have and I wish him well. I wish he really does deserve an honorary degree from Yale in four years time."
But a survey of past presidents who have been similarly honored by Yale suggests that the award often has been bestowed during the first year in office.
John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt were all offered honorary degrees during their first year as president, though Franklin Roosevelt did not accept his until a year later.
Other presidents received honorary Yale degrees at different times. George Washington and William Howard Taft, an 1878 Yale graduate, got the honor before becoming president. Gerald Ford got it after his brief term ended.
Professor Smith said that it was not uncommon for part of the Yale community to object to a recipient.
"There have been several instances in which this has led to protest of one sort or another," he said. "Historically, more protest from the right against Franklin Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King."