Sean Combs, one of hip hop’s most astute businessmen, was recently given the opportunity to recreate his name and identity…again. In the 90’s we knew him as “Puffy”. In 2001 he changed his moniker to “P-Diddy”. Shortly thereafter, the “P” fell off and he was simply “Diddy” until last Saturday when he switched it up on us again to become “Dr. Combs”. Standing before the Howard University Board of Trustees, “Puff Daddy-Diddy-Dr Combs” delivered a powerful commencement address to the historically Black university’s 2014 graduating class. He also received an honorary doctorate of humanities, following the likes of Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey, and former US President Bill Clinton. I finally got a chance to watch his address on yesterday. Revolt TV, which he owns, has a link to view it in its entirety. Combs did not disappoint. I can see why #DrCombs trended well into Mother’s Day. Howard U made a good decision selecting him as their speaker. However, I don’t think they did an equally swell job of informing the larger community on the nature of the honorary doctorate and the symbolic meanings associated with the award. Other than Diverse: Issues in Higher Education’s highlight that the historically Black university will hit a school record in their awarding of 105 doctoral degrees, I have not seen anything online since Diddy did his thing that addresses the ambiguities between the honorary doctorate and the earned doctorate. It has, however, prompted off-line conversations with friends and colleagues, some of who want to know if it is commonplace to refer to Combs as “Dr. Combs” in the same way these graduates will now be addressed. “That’s what makes this something of an ambiguous symbol,” explains Dr. Robert Franklin, former President of Morehouse College. “For the students sitting in the audience, there is a kind of reciprocity they have earned. They did work. They studied and produced in order to earn the degree that was conferred upon him. Others, who have not done that, but again through extraordinary and exceptional work at the highest level in the field, command the attention of the institution. That this is someone we want to honor and place our brand and highest approval on. Since they’ve done that, he can use that title, although one might argue it wasn’t earned.” Earned versus honorary. The fact that “Dr. Combs” did not go through the institutional channels, levels, and hazing that most Ph.D’s go through doesn’t cheapen the award he received. More so, it draws out the distinctions between the doctorate as award and the doctorate as avenue to research and scholarship. For example, on a CV, resume, or bio an honorary doctorate is listed under “Awards and Honors” instead of “Educational Background”. Second, in the Academy potential scholars apply to an academic program, create a program of study, sit in classes, write a dissertation, and defend said dissertation. After which, they are provided all the rights and privileges associated with the degree. Some go into research. Others might use their degree in corporate industries, the government sector, or administration. For sake of this essay, let’s assume those 105 graduates will take the research route and apply for tenure track positions. After he or she is hired as a tenure track assistant professor, something called a “tenure clock” begins. Essentially, these newly-minted assistant professors have six years (give or take) to execute a focused research agenda that has broad impacts. So let’s say there was a cancer researcher in that audience of 105. This cancer research scholar must deliver a set of quantifiable outcomes by the time that clock stops ticking. These deliverables include: published writing in scholarly journals, books, and popular publications about the research; related courses taught; student mentoring; conference presentations; and a record of outreach and service. Combs found success and promotion in the record industry because he produced measurable outcomes like sales and revenue. It’s the same in academia. No measurable outputs. No tenure or promotion. “Those are the outputs of scholarship that peer scholars can examine and acknowledge as worthy,” Franklin further describes. “Real work and research went into them. Thinking went into them. But this is not what this is,” he says referring to the honorary degree. “This is more like a plaque to hang on a wall. It is the institution’s approval of this individual’s affiliation with the institution and or body of work. So, yeah, we need to be careful in how we use the title so that it doesn’t cheapen the value of the earned honor that all the rest of us have engaged in just like we need to be careful about devaluing these rare honors and awards.” “I think it’s helpful to clarify,” Franklin tells me. “Because we have already seen what I will call this misallocation of recognition and honor in other institutions like the Black church with folks getting ordained and suddenly people start calling them “doctor” as well, and somehow think “Reverend Dr” is just an automatic title. One that you don’t have to earn when it is.” So the quick and dirty answer is “yes”. Diddy is a doctor now. “He can legitimately be called “Dr. Combs” because he has been conferred as one,” Franklin further shares with me. “We do not say earned, but we do say the institution has conferred. It is an honor. A symbol of appreciation.” With this conferral Diddy has the gifted right and privilege to call himself “Dr. Combs”. It’s not the most common thing for a recipient to do. Yet I suspect Diddy’s insatiable appetite for reincarnation will prompt him to call himself “Dr. Combs”, “Dr. Diddy”, or some variation thereof. “This naming and renaming and so on is kind of a fascinating process of reinvention, as I view it,” ends Franklin. “It seems to me that now he has raised the bar on the process of reinvention by repackaging himself with this honorary doctorate conferral.”