Dilemma: Right vs. Right
Excuse Me--Is That Dr. or Mr. Craft?
As head of a foundation that funds arts programs in a southern city, Connie helped initiate a program to bring artists-in-residence into the middle schools. Her seven-member committee had received numerous applications, including one from Hamilton Craft, perhaps the best-known painter in the region. His national reputation and amiable personality made him a natural for Connie's program--and he had let it be known around the city that he was applying. Reviewing the applications, Connie had little doubt he would be selected.
On the resume submitted with his application, Craft had listed a Ph.D. in art history, received from an east-coast university in the late 1960s. So Connie's assistant, doing routine background checks on the artists, was astonished to discover that the university had no record of such a degree. Craft had indeed enrolled in a doctoral program, but had never completed it. He did not hold a PhD. His resume plainly misstated the facts.
Connie told the committee, and then confronted Craft. Cordial as ever, he explained that just as he was completing the work for his doctorate, he had been drafted into the army. What he had meant to write on the resume, he explained, was, "Course work completed for Ph.D."--a phrase often used in resumes to indicate that the candidate never completed the writing of the dissertation. But somehow that phrase got shortened simply to "Ph.D."
Then, turning surprisingly tough, Craft warned her that if the committee refused him on this technicality--an issue that surely had little bearing on his ability to work with a classroom of middle-schoolers--he would sue them for mishandling his application and potentially defaming his character.
Chairing the committee, Connie watched it deadlock in a three-to-three vote. It fell to her to break the tie. What should she do?
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