Morehouse faculty votes to award Biden honorary degree amid commencement controversy over handling of war in Gaza

Despite frustration among some Morehouse College faculty, staff and students over President Joe Biden delivering the Atlanta school's commencement address on Sunday, the faculty voted on Thursday to award the president an honorary degree -- an act some said they opposed in protest of his handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

On a call Thursday morning, 50 of the 88 faculty members present voted to award Biden an honorary degree. There was a possibility that faculty would choose not to award Biden the honorary degree, a source told ABC News, as an alternative way of protesting Biden's speech.

Threats of protests at Morehouse over Biden's appearance began to bubble up late last month -- amid a broader period of protests on U.S. college campuses over Israel's war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attacks.

The honorary degree process, typically voted on earlier in the year, is a regular occurrence at Morehouse. Every year, faculty must vote to confer the commencement speaker's honorary degree. This year, due to an "oversight in the process," faculty didn't vote until Thursday.

Several students sent a letter to the faculty pleading with them to vote against giving Biden the honorary degree.

"I think a degree is something you earn," said sophomore Anwar Karim, one of the students who joined in on that letter. "I failed to find any sort of qualification that earns Biden such an honor."

Honorary degrees are often awarded to people who have made significant contributions to their field. Biden has received several honorary degrees for his contributions in politics.

A faculty member who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity said they voted in favor of giving the president an honorary degree -- and they planned to vote for Biden in November.

"I think it's important to consider that you're not just voting for one person, you're voting for the team. I trust the team," the faculty member said.

Morehouse's board and students from the Atlanta University Center Consortium -- a collaboration between four historically black colleges and universities in the region, which includes Morehouse -- were told by chair of the board, Willie Woods, to find a "tasteful" way to protest Biden's commencement speech, Karim, who attended the meeting, told ABC News. The Morehouse board is pushing for nonviolent protests.

Biden will be making his speech in an election year in a key swing state in front of a key voting bloc -- Morehouse is one of the country's most famous historically Black colleges. Biden has weighed in on student protests at college campuses, saying on local Atlanta-based radio show, "The Big Tigger Morning Show With Jazzy McBee," on Wednesday that although Americans have the right to "peacefully protest," shouting hate speech or participating in violence is "unacceptable."

He added: "I think, a lot of legitimate concerns, and people have a right to protest, to do it peacefully and I respect it."

While Biden has sought to balance sympathy for Palestinian civilians in Gaza with support for Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas, he has faced continuing criticism from younger and more progressive voters, particularly, for America's backing of Israel's operations, even as the White House has denounced some of Israel's actions.

Last week, Steve Benjamin, who heads the White House Office of Public Engagement, held a two-hour meeting with a select group of students and faculty to discuss what they were interested in hearing during Biden's commencement address.

The group of students and faculty shared with the White House that they were not looking to hear a campaign speech from the president as he faces off against former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, in November, according to a White House official. Benjamin reassured the students that the focus would be on celebrating their graduation as well as the president's hopes for the students as they move forward with their futures.

Karim, the sophomore, said he is not necessarily concerned about Biden turning his commencement address into a campaign speech.

"I'm more concerned with if you are going to give a campaign speech, what are you going to say that might be of some use to us as young Black men?" he said.

Students have wrapped up their finals and move-out day was on May 11, meaning it’s impossible for most students to actually be on campus during commencement.

If there are protests, it will be up to seniors, their family members, some alumni and faculty. It's unclear if these seniors will organize around the movement.

The school's president, David A. Thomas, has expressed fear of a possible response from the police to a crowd that's largely comprised of Black people.

In an interview with NPR, Thomas said that if police had to be involved they would "cancel" commencement "on the spot."

"The last thing that we want to do is create a moment where someone is taken out of commencement by law enforcement because they are being disruptive," Thomas said. "Faced with the choice of having police take people out of the Morehouse commencement in zip ties, we would essentially cancel or discontinue the commencement services on the spot."

ABC News' Molly Nagle and Selina Wang contributed to this report.