Myles Brand to receive honorary degree from IU

The University announced today that IU President Emeritus Myles Brand will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree on March 29.

Brand, former IU president who served from 1994 to 2002, has been the president of the NCAA since January 2003.

"It is an enormous honor for me and for Indiana University to confer this degree upon Myles Brand, who has done so much to transform higher education in Indiana and across the nation," IU President Michael McRobbie said in a press release.

"His strategic vision was responsible for the creation of the School of Informatics, the establishment of the Clarian Health system and dramatic increases in private-sector support and research funding at IU. At the NCAA, he has been a forceful advocate for academic excellence, fiscal responsibility and accountability.

During his tenure at IU, Brand was criticized following the firing of men's basketball coach Bob Knight. When news spread of Knight's dismissal on Sept. 10, 2000, angry students assembled at Bryan house, the president's on-campus residence.

Brand said earlier this year that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is undergoing treatment.

The ceremony, the Honors Convocation, will be at 2 p.m. March 29 at the IU Auditorium.