Lily Belle Poling, Staff Photographer

On Sunday evening, actress Debbie Allen and renowned literary scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. ’73 were spotted at the University’s annual reception for individuals who will receive honorary Yale degrees this year.

Every year, the Yale Corporation presents honorary degrees — the highest honor conferred by Yale — to people who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields. Last year, the University awarded nine honorary doctorates to recipients including former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Stephen Breyer and former University President Peter Salovey.

University spokesperson Karen Peart confirmed to the News that this year’s honorary degree reception was held Sunday evening in the Yale Center for British Art, or YCBA — a historic venue for the event. Allen was seen entering the event at 6:11 p.m., and Gates was spotted on his way out at 9:36 p.m. Peart did not confirm which attendees will be receiving honorary degrees. 

Allen, who has no affiliation with Yale, is best known for her role in the musical television drama “Fame,” for which she won a Golden Globe Award for best actress in a television series and two Emmy Awards. She also choreographed the 1988 Broadway adaptation of Stephen King’s “Carrie.”

Gates attended Yale College and studied at Yale Law School for a month before dropping out. A Harvard professor, he has written extensively about African and African American literary and musical traditions.

McInnis referenced Gates during her Baccalaureate address on Sunday morning, referencing his wrongful arrest — when he was suspected of breaking into his own home — and noted Gates’ decision to sit down with the arresting officer in a “beer summit” at the White House. McInnis described the meeting as a “gesture of hope,” emphasizing the creation of unexpected connections. 

Pulitzer prize-winning Harvard historian Annette Gordon-Reed, Nobel prize-winning chemical engineer Frances Arnold and three-time Grammy winner and jazz musician Ron Carter were also among the guests seen entering the YCBA.

Gordon-Reed, a professor at Harvard Law School, won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in history for her book “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,” which also won the Yale Frederick Douglass Book Prize for the best book written in English on slavery or abolition in 2009.

Arnold is a professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2018 for her use of directed evolution to engineer enzymes. Arnold gave a lecture in chemistry to Yale students in 2023.

Carter, who played in Yale’s Sprague Hall in 2014, is a jazz bassist who has won three Grammy awards. 

The Yale Corporation’s Committee on Honorary Degrees deliberates on nominated candidates before the entire Board of Trustees votes on ultimate recipients, per a University webpage.

Prior News coverage from 1980 reported that recipients were determined in the fall before their honorary degrees were conferred. The News could not independently confirm the timeline currently used for selecting honorary degree recipients.

The YCBA closed for renovations in 2023 and reopened in March.

Aiden Zhou and Carter Cashen contributed reporting.

Correction, May 19: A previous version of this article identified event guests as “honorees.”

Correction, May 19: A previous version of this article stated that senior administrator Kimberly Goff-Crews said that honorary degrees are decided at least a couple years in advance. In fact, Goff-Crews was not the individual who made that remark to a News reporter, and the News could not verify the assertion of fact previously misattributed to her. The News regrets this mistake.