Q: A client for whom I do consulting work owes me a lot of money. I knew when I took the job that payment might be delayed, but not indefinitely. When an unexpected check arrived, I happily deposited it. A few days later the client said the check was mailed in error and asked me to return it. Must I? — Name Withheld, Connecticut
A: Keep the money. Although I generally assert that it is unethical to exploit an innocent error, I exempt situations in which someone intends to do wrong but inadvertently does right. If a mugger fails to notice the $100 bill stashed in your sock — and I pity the store where you spend it — you need not call after him: “Wait. Come back. Rob me more, the way you meant to.”
The money you received is, in fact, yours. Your depositing it may vex your client and make him even more reluctant to settle his account, but that’s a tactical, not an ethical, consideration. With luck, this tiff will provide the impetus to negotiate a mutually acceptable repayment plan and end your squabbling.
Q: I am a tenured professor. My provost asked me to evaluate an overseas colleague. I did so, responding in an e-mail message. The provost then contacted the colleague, quoting my report and attributing it to me. I was stunned: Such evaluations are assumed to be confidential. When I complained, the provost replied, “If it’s in an e-mail, it’s public,” adding that our colleague deserves to know what is being said about him and by whom. Your opinion? — J.H., New York
A: The means of transmission is irrelevant. The ethical implications of this situation would be no different if you had sent the evaluation in an old-fashioned letter or wrapped it around a brick and hurled it through the provost’s window (tempting but taboo). What’s at issue is the privacy of faculty evaluations.
As you aver, such things are widely assumed to be confidential. If your (self-serving) provost disagreed, he should have said so in advance, as one professor I consulted confirmed. “Since the default position is confidentiality,” she told me, “one has a right to expect it, unless explicitly told otherwise.
One problem with assumptions is that they might not be universally held. Thus your department should establish explicit privacy policies governing faculty evaluations.
Send questions and comments for Randy Cohen to Universal Press Syndicate, 4520 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111, or ethicist@nytimes.com.
