Harvard: No degrees for expelled gays

BOSTON -- Students and faculty at Harvard University are calling on the school to award posthumous degrees to seven students expelled nearly a century ago for being gay or perceived as gay, and they're timing a rally for their cause to coincide with a visit by Lady Gaga.

But Harvard says it doesn't award posthumous degrees, except in rare cases, such as when students complete academic requirements but die before degrees have been conferred.

The university apologized a decade ago, after a student reporter found a file marked "secret court" in the university archives and wrote about the expulsions.

"In 2002, the University expressed its deep regret for the way the situation was handled as well as for the anguish experienced by the students and their families almost a century ago," Harvard spokesman John Longbrake said in a statement.

Some say the apology isn't enough and that it's important for Harvard to confer honorary degrees.

"It's not reparations, it's more of a gesture to the present LGBT community that this university has cemented its values on the right side of history and it's willing to address -- not just put in the past -- the aberrations of the 1920s," said Jonas Wang, 21, a transgender student.

A group of students and faculty members plan a rally during a campus visit by Lady Gaga, who will be at Harvard today to launch her Born This Way anti-bullying foundation. The singer has been a strong activist for the gay community.

The group wants Harvard to formally abolish the secret court, a tribunal of administrators that investigated charges of homosexual activity among students in 1920. More than 2,700 people have signed a petition on Change.org, urging Harvard to confer the honorary degrees.

Lady Gaga is expected to be joined by Oprah Winfrey, spiritual leader Deepak Chopra and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a kickoff event for her foundation.