It must kill Cosby, who has a Masters in Education from Columbia University, to have to listen to this stuff.
I think you are mistaken times 2.
IIRC - Dr. William Cosby received a Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) from University of Massachusetts at Amherst. (1977 - note - he got a Masters in 1972.)
IIRC(2) - UMass actively pursued him, promised him a chance to have special classes that fit his busy schedule. He did a thesis related to his cartoon characters (from Fat Albert Sat. AM show) and learning.
But ... IIRC(3) - see the book "Education's Smoking Gun: How Teachers Colleges Have Destroyed Education In America" by Reginald G. Damerell, - where he describes the ghettos of universities - the part dedicated to educating teachers ... and he references the special program for Bill Cosby.
NOTE - I am not trying to disparage Cosby's degree - I have never seen the thesis or the quality of his work. It is not uncommon for universities to come up with special programs ... and when Cosby was enticed into the program - it was definitely going to be mutually beneficial. If I had to guess - I suspect that the program might be a "Ph.D. "lite" program - but it might have more integrity than some of the other programs out there, and Coz actually did some real work for it. It is probably truly an earned degree.)
Now - in the book referenced above, there were classic examples where nearly functional illiterates were taken into some Ed.D. program (sometimes without a Bachelor's degree, and of questionable academic capabilities) ... and after demonstrating extreme incompetance - they were dropped from the Ed.D. program, but allowed to get a M.A.Ed degree - where they could then get a high paying job that they were totally unqualified for!!!
But back to Cos ... great guy. He was at USNA last September to entertain the parents of Firsties (First Class Parents Weekend) .... sadly - my son is a Second Class Mid - otherwise I would have been there - enjoying every minute.
Mike