Monroe to keep VCU degree despite dissent
ANNA YATES - News Co-Editor
Issue date: 8/25/08 Section: News
According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Steingass said in an e-mail ... he was interviewed six times during an internal investigation that he described as unfair, unprofessional and prosecutorial."
Steingass stated he was pressured by investigators to implicate Trani and Robert D. Holsworth, former dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences.
About a month after the investigation, VCU announced Holsworth would be stepping down as dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences but would remain at the university as a political-science professor.
Contrary to the claim made in the anonymous complaint, the investigation of the Monroe degree found no evidence that anyone in the administration improperly influenced staff to break university policy.
However, Linda L. Spinelli, retired coordinator of the interdisciplinary-studies program, has made statements in the past week to the Times-Dispatch contradicting the findings by the Board of Visitors that officials were not pressured to approve the degree.
Spinelli said she refused to sign the application, which was eventually signed by Steingass.
Spinelli would not identify who it was she claimed pressured her, but told the Times-Dispatch it was "an administrator with more authority than me."
Rosenthal said the board has worked hard to determine the facts of the situation. He said the idea of influence falls within a gray area, but it is important for the VCU community to take this as an opportunity to examine its policies and to focus on the code of conduct.
"We are going to go back and review our policies and procedures and look at the reasons that we can revoke a degree, and we will probably make some changes," Rosenthal said. "Following the VCU code of conduct, that's the university-wide discussion we want to have, and the board thinks everyone needs to go back and get in touch with that."
Timeline of events
May:
Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe is awarded a bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies.
Steingass stated he was pressured by investigators to implicate Trani and Robert D. Holsworth, former dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences.
About a month after the investigation, VCU announced Holsworth would be stepping down as dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences but would remain at the university as a political-science professor.
Contrary to the claim made in the anonymous complaint, the investigation of the Monroe degree found no evidence that anyone in the administration improperly influenced staff to break university policy.
However, Linda L. Spinelli, retired coordinator of the interdisciplinary-studies program, has made statements in the past week to the Times-Dispatch contradicting the findings by the Board of Visitors that officials were not pressured to approve the degree.
Spinelli said she refused to sign the application, which was eventually signed by Steingass.
Spinelli would not identify who it was she claimed pressured her, but told the Times-Dispatch it was "an administrator with more authority than me."
Rosenthal said the board has worked hard to determine the facts of the situation. He said the idea of influence falls within a gray area, but it is important for the VCU community to take this as an opportunity to examine its policies and to focus on the code of conduct.
"We are going to go back and review our policies and procedures and look at the reasons that we can revoke a degree, and we will probably make some changes," Rosenthal said. "Following the VCU code of conduct, that's the university-wide discussion we want to have, and the board thinks everyone needs to go back and get in touch with that."
Timeline of events
May:
Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe is awarded a bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies.
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Truth
posted 8/30/08 @ 10:58 AM EST
Please read, as this is a message to seek logic where it is not found.
It is interesting to note, that after the administrators of the VCU community get caught in their corruption, and mishandling of their power, . (Continued…)
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