This weekend, more than 400 students from Bates college in Lewiston will walk across a stage to receive their diplomas. Joining them will be actor Robert DeNiro, PBS news correspondent Gwen Ifill and molecular biologist Bonnie Bassler. They'll receive honorary degrees, a long-held practice in colleges and universities. As Patty Wight reports, their actual purpose and the significance to recipients extends well beyond a piece of paper.

What do Tony Shaloub, Bela Fleck, and Anna Quindlen have in common? You guessed it. They've received honorary degrees from Maine colleges and universities.

"We've had, in recent years, Geena Davis, Brian Williams--various other well-known names," says Roland Adams, communications director for Bates College. "But it's really important to remember that having a well-known name is not necessarily what it's all about."

So, what is this whole honorary degree thing all about? "You know, I've wondered that myself," says Judie O'Malley, the assistant director of public affairs at USM. Sen. Olympia Snowe was among the honorary degree recipients at this year's commencement. "It's certainly a tradition that all colleges follow," O'Malley says.

It's a tradition that has actually gone on for centuries. According to the University of Oxford in England, the first honorary degree was given in the late 1400s to the brother-in-law of King Edward IV. It was an apparent attempt to gain favor from a powerful man.

Today, the reasons for dispensing honorary degrees are more student-centric, according to Sally Baker, vice president of Colby College. "It's important that almost every student sitting out there can look up on the stage and say, 'That's someone who's pursued something that means something to me,'" Baker says.

When Colby College selects recipients for honorary degrees, they first ask faculty, staff, and students to nominate people who are distinguished in their fields. As they whittle down the list, the goal is to create a group that represents various disciplines.

This year, the list included a Maine-based entrepreneur, a Native American activist, social and climate scientists, and a jazz musician. Baker says the primary focus is to inspire students. "But at the same time, it's our way of both honoring the people to whom we are giving these honorary degrees, and adding a little bit of lustre to our college by bringing them into our alumni family in this way."

As for recipients, the recognition can be deeply gratifying--or not. Dr. Ralph Cicerone, a climate scientist and the president of the National Academy of Sciences, received an honorary doctorate of science from Colby College last week.

Cicerone says the degree is something he can list on his resume. He holds four other honorary degrees. But he's selective. There have been additional offers from colleges that he declined. Colby's offer stood out, he says, because he got his invitation a year ago.

"When you receive an invitation like that, enough in advance, not just a throw away email, it was really very impressive," he says. "It convinced immediately me that the commencement ceremony at Colby and an honorary degree issuance from Colby really means something."

He says it also makes him feel more connected to the college. He says another school--Dennison University in Ohio--used to regularly invite him to give guest lectures. He never accepted. Then, a few years ago, Dennison presented him with an honorary degree.

"Believe me, if somebody asks me for the name of a top liberal arts college in the eastern United States, you can be assured that I'm going to think of Dennison and Colby because I've now seen how they're run and what their physical plants are, what their students are doing, and so forth," Cicerone says. "So it makes an impression."

"I think more colleges are somehow recognizing the public relations benefit of having a very famous speaker. Or at least--I don't know if recognizing is the word--hoping for a public relations benefit from that," says Colby's Sally Baker.

Baker says the process is becoming more competitive, and the college might start sending invitations for honorary degrees even earlier than a year in advance--which means those invitations for next year's commencement should be in the mail soon.