“GOT STUDENT DEBT? You’re not alone, but maybe it means you really didn’t graduate from college.” Harvard’s Kennedy School is telling a graduate (and the world) that he really isn’t a graduate until he pays off his tuition. Appealing to “fundamental principles of equity” (a legal phrase even more vague than Due Process) the graduate in question, entertainment industry veteran Stephen Powell, alleges in a defamation claim that:

“Harvard conferred an MPA degree on him in 1994, and is now suing Harvard seeking an order that Harvard be stopped from denying that he is a graduate of the Kennedy School,” states a December 22 court filing by Harvard. “However, Powell never paid Harvard for any of the costs of obtaining an MPA degree, and indeed deliberately avoided paying Harvard for the costs of that degree. Fundamental principles of equity dictate that Powell cannot claim entitlement to a degree without paying for it.”

This just doesn’t sound right, unless Harvard is admitting that they do not provide, you know, an education, but merely a piece of paper.