Use of the title, "Dr." - Ethical Issue Resolved

Gus, I thought I'd just share some good news with you. Had you believed me that I personally spoke with the CRCC and was provided approval to use the title "Dr." -- after of course completing my doctorate degree at ACCS -- I would not have been forced to submit a formal inquire to CRCC -- which really was a waste of time. Since you have continuely stated that I was less-than-truthful, with regard to both my advisement that the CRCC stated that I could use the title and furthermore have referred to me as unethical or engaging in unethical behavior I thought I'd put this subject to rest. BTW, no one has ever -- including many Judges -- questioned my knowledge or behavior.

I have cut-and-pasted the entire email communication with CRCC.
Enjoy the reading. The black-and-white thinker that you are I'm sure will try to shoot holes in this, and you might even poke one or two, but the main point, here is that if so, you the one fighting a losing battle.
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Good morning.

Below you will find a response from CRCC's Ethics Committee...

November 15, 2002

Dear Mr. Cox:

The Ethics Committee of the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC) has had an opportunity to review your correspondence concerning a request for an advisory opinion.

The Ethics Committee of the CRCC provides advisory opinions on selected situations having ethical implications. These advisory opinions are provided as a general educational service and are rendered in response to limited and unverified information provided to the Committee. Therefore, it should not be construed as direct advice regarding the unique or specific ethical or legal action recommendations that should be followed regarding the issues raised. The considerations described
by the Committee's advisory opinion should be regarded only as general educational assistance and not as specific direction in any particular instance.

Your request pertained to whether it is appropriate to use the title Dr. after receiving a degree from a Christian Counseling program from a college that is accredited by TRACS, but not by one of the six regional accreditation organizations. The Committee responded that the Code only speaks about misrepresenting credentials and about degrees from
unrelated fields, neither of which applies to the scenario presented. Therefore, you may use the title of Dr. in practice after having been granted the degree.

Standards in the Code effective January 1, 2002 that apply to this
situation include D.4.a and D.4.d. They read as follows:

D.4. Credentials

a. Credentials Claimed. Rehabilitation counselors will claim or
will imply only professional credentials possessed and are responsiblefor correcting any known misrepresentations of their credentials by others. Professional credentials include graduate degrees in counseling or closely related fields, accreditation of graduate programs, national voluntary certifications, government-issued certifications or licenses, or any other credential that might indicate to the public specialized knowledge or expertise in counseling.

d. Doctoral Degrees From Other Fields. Rehabilitation counselors who hold a master's degree in counseling or a closely related field, but hold a doctoral degree from other than counseling or a closely related field, will not use the title "Dr." in their practices and will not announce to the public in relation to their practice or status as a rehabilitation counselor that they hold a doctorate.

Thank you for your continued support of the certification process
through the promotion of ethical practice.

Very truly yours,

Susan L. Gilpin
Chief Executive Officer

SLG/cac

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-----Original Message-----
From: DISABILITY SOLUTIONS - D. Wes Cox [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2002 1:16 PM
To: Cindy Chapman
Subject: Ethical Issue - Degree Use

The CRCC Code of Ethics states that only doctorate degrees earned from a regionally accredited college can be used by CRC's.

I am enrolled in a doctorate of Christian Counseling program at American Christian College and Seminary, which is accredited by Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) -- an accreditor recognized by both the US Dept of Ed and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). www.tracs.org/

Did I interpret the CRC Code of Ethic correct, that I will not be able
to utilize the title Doctor after my degree is earned?

Regards, Wes Cox

 

Wes,

Interesting and informative response!

I look to be able to address you as "Dr. Wes" as soon as you graduate. When will you complete the ACCS program?

 

Interesting material, Wes. As a strong supporter of GAAP accreditation, but not necessarily of the RA--or ATS--single system, I am pleased to see what you posted.

 

Thank you for the kind comments.

Unfortunately the ACCS program will take me another two or more years, and even then I'll have to pick up my pace. I haven't been able to spend as much time with my coursework as I planned. I've found the program to be very stimulating and just wished that I could spend more time studying. On an interesting note, I have recently purchased a voice recognition program to dictate my terms papers versus writing and/or typing and have found this program -- Naturally Speaking -- to function remarkably well.

 

Wes,

If I purchased a dissertation from TREN, read it aloud in the presence of a voice recognition program, let the computer do the typing, then submitted the dissertation as my own, would this be plagiarism? Only kidding!

Best wishes as you complete your doctorate!

 

I had Naturally Speaking but couldn't get it to work acceptably, even with training (of it and me!). Must be my accent...

 

Bill, it seems that you aren't familiar with the function of voice recognition software. It is intended to translate spoken (i.e. dictated) words into text. So, it would not really be "dictated without being written," but would be text generated by the computer as a result of what was spoken. It's just an alternative form of input to using a keyboard, and is really great (if it works well) for people who have physical limitations that make it difficult for them to type. There should not be any distinguishable difference in the resulting product, so I can't imagine anyone caring what input method was used to generate the paper. I imagine that someday voice recognition will be a very popular method of input, especially for very small personal computing devices. One day you may see airport waiting areas full of people apparently mumbling to themselves; at least until neural interfaces come along to make verbal input an obsolete concept.

 

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Thanks for your response Gary, and you're right I never heard of it. I understood Wes to say that his speaking into this device was *"dictating my papers versus writing".* So I began to apply that notion to the papers I do and did not see its applicability as it sounded as though the paper would be done extemporaneously which is far from how mine are accomplished.


I could not see myself achieving with this device in my citing portions of Greek or Hebrew lexica or grammars ,or precisely phrasing fine theogonic points, or reworking over and over and over again my own circuitous expressions to meet the judgmental eye of the UZ Supervisor.

I at times spend hours on a single page. One of Wesley's best buds thought sermon preparation was a sin because it showed no trust in the Spirit to provide the words at the time of speaking, but I have no such anointing and neither could see me speaking into such a device without doing the massive , but enjoyable, labors of first writing .

Thanks again,

 

A good example that everyone has friends who are perhaps not in total alignment with the text. Wesley himself labored over the text spending myriad hours in sermon preparation.

 

Just curious

I may have the same problem as Bill with the hebrew and all, but I'm curious if such voice recognition software is equipped to cite footnotes, endnotes, bibliographic information. Is there voice recognition software for different scholarly formats, such as MLA or Turabian?

Chris

 

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Thanks. I will have to rely on His persevering me for I am overcome with the complexity of Philippians 2:6,7 and its apllication to the thesis. I write and tear up and write again over and over being disatisfied with what I have made.

 

Works like a charm

Via Voice 10.


jim

 

You do need the perseverance of the saints (you right thinking Calvinist... you). Doing two doctorates at one time is an interesting approach. I do not even think the multi degreed (two accredited doctorates) Ric Walston tried that one.

We will celebrate with you when you complete your studies as you are undoubtedly predestined to do.

North

 

The TULIP Doctorate

I just had a very liberating awakening! The TULIP Doctorate!

If indeed one is predestined to complete a doctorate (or 2,3,4......), and if perseverance is guaranteed, and if the grace to complete the doctorate is irresistable (i.e., I will complete the degree whether I want to or not), and if one is totally depraved (i.e., unable in the minutest detail to move toward completion of the doctorate), then the responsibility to complete the doctorate is not my own. Actually, I would complete the degree without any contribution on my part. No need to study, do research, even write myriad rough drafts. As a matter of fact I can live on the golf course, wax my automobiles and go on vacation. If I am one of those covered by limited atonement, I have nothing to worry about. None of it is my responsibility.

This puts a liberating slant on multiple doctorates, so I think I will enroll in several today.

 

Re: The TULIP Doctorate

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No, not liberating! Liberal, as opposed to orthodoxy.

Your charade of Calvinism falls into line behind the heretics of the past: Pelagius, Socinius, Arminius.

Ah Russell, you have drunk deeply the dregs of dogmatic distortions . Beware lest in that dizzy condition your grip on your own bootstraps weakens not, for if you let go, then upon grace, not human strength, you will be forced to trust..

"te gar chariti esthe sesosmenoi", Paulos, Eph 2

 

Re: The TULIP Doctorate

Ahh....but Russell because Calvinists have the ultimate respect and awe for the sovereignty (etc) of God we realize that we are to follow his commands simply because He commanded them. He has commanded us to 'study' and we study just as He has commanded us to evangelize and so we evangelize. He works through secondary causes even though He is the Primary Cause. It is the Arminians (and their close cousins the Open Theists) who believe that God needs them to accomplish anything. Arminians believe they can thwart the will of God if they so choose. I guess in the Arminian world God is not in really in charge (omnipotent). He cannot or will not overcome your will to fulfill His purposes Therefore to use your analogy, in the Arminian world if God did not want you to earn a PhD by means other than hard work and study, you could indeed thwart His will and earn it by going golfing and on vacation because you do not need to follow His laws. Besides God should have checked with Arminius or Wesley before he formulated them and then they might have had a better chance of success if He had secured the approval and cooperation of Arminus or Wesley first.

{PS This is tongue in cheek. I realize all systems seeking to understand these issues have some problems}

North