VCU revises degree policy
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By Karin Kapsidelis
Published: November 21, 2008
With the simple addition of the words "for cause," Virginia Commonwealth University yesterday revised its policies to make it easier to revoke a degree.
The board of visitors, without referring to former Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe, changed the policy that it said had tied its hands in revoking the degree he was awarded in 2007.
"The university reserves the right to revoke any degree, certificate or other university recognition for cause," the new policy states. Previously, the board's policy was to revoke degrees only for academic misconduct.
Monroe, now chief of police in Charlotte/Mecklenburg County, N.C., said last month that he is considering options that include completing the VCU requirements, returning the degree or earning one from another school.
A spokeswoman said yesterday that Monroe likely would not make a decision before the end of the year. VCU Rector Thomas Rosenthal said after the board meeting that he has not heard from Monroe.
In a letter to the state House Appropriations Committee last month, the board of visitors acknowledged that it already had the inherent authority to revoke Monroe's degree.
The board is under pressure from the committee to force Monroe to complete the requirements necessary for the degree or return it.
Rosenthal has said the board decided it could not take that action because of the "academic misconduct" policy.
The board's investigation blamed poor judgment on the part of some VCU officials for awarding the degree but found no misconduct by Monroe.
Monroe should have taken 30 of 120 credit hours at VCU. Instead, he took six credit hours, or two courses, and received additional credits online from the University of Phoenix.
Monroe has said he was unaware of the university's residency rule. To remedy that, VCU this fall required students to sign statements at multiple points -- at admission, class registration and graduation -- acknowledging it is their responsibility to understand their degree requirements.
The revision in the policy on revoking degrees prompted questions from board member Edward H. Bersoff about the use of "university" and "cause" in the wording adopted by the board.
"It's not clear to me who the university is in that context," he said.
He questioned whether the policy needed to be more specific so that it did not appear the university could revoke a degree on a whim.
But others argued it was an important first step and that fine-tuning of the wording could come later.
VCU President Eugene P. Trani told the board he just had revoked a degree -- the first one in his tenure. Trani has been president since 1990.
University spokeswoman Pam Lepley said later that the degree was revoked because of academic misconduct. The case involved a student who had changed four of his grades from failing to passing and removed legitimately registered students from courses so he could take their places.
In other action yesterday, the board:
The changes, a response to the Virginia Tech shootings by a student in April 2007, also expanded into a campuswide policy VCU's threat-assessment procedures, which had been developed for faculty and staff.
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Posted by ( Larry Lanberg ) on November 21, 2008 at 3:43 am
I don’t like the quik-fix, loose wording “for cause”. The term is too broad and can be invoked broadly.
Theoretically, a person could post something deemed ‘offensive’ on a blog (“I am a VCU graduate and short people frighten me”), and then the school could consider it “cause”—and legally get away with yanking the person’s degree. “Well, this person’s comments reflect poorly on our beloved university; we cannot be associated with this type of negative publicity.“
This looks like a lazy way to skirt around the actual problem, and also a possible means to retaliate against alumni who criticize the university in public.
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Posted by ( Lloyd Schieldge ) on November 21, 2008 at 1:42 am
Wake up Rosenthal, the misconduct is that Monroe lied when he signed his degree application indicating that he had met VCU’s requirement for the degree. He clearly did not, and does not meet those requirements.
The people are not going to give up on this until you take the unearned degree away, you are all looking like a bunch of fools.
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