From the Chronicle, the voice of Academe.

Coppin State College to Let Failing Students Graduate, Critics Charge
By MEGAN ROONEY

Coppin State College is poised to let at least eight students in its criminal-justice graduate program receive master's degrees on Sunday even though they did not pass their comprehensive exams or write final papers considered acceptable by the faculty. The college decided to let the students graduate after they sued the college.

Some professors in the department are considering boycotting the graduation ceremonies, and a student who successfully completed the graduation requirements is considering her own lawsuit against the historically black college in Baltimore. She says that her degree has been rendered meaningless by the decision to award the credential to students who did not complete the required course work.

"These students simply cannot be allowed to graduate," said Richard Monk, a professor of criminal justice at Coppin State. "The situation is abysmal."

There are two routes by which students can complete a master's degree in the criminal-justice department at Coppin State. The first includes writing a seminar paper and passing a comprehensive exam. The second option includes writing and presenting an oral defense of a graduate thesis.

According to Mr. Monk, all 10 students who sat for the comprehensive exam on March 15 failed, and the seminar papers those students submitted were far below acceptable quality. In a letter he wrote to the head of the department in early April, Mr. Monk described all the seminar papers as lacking sufficient references and clear hypotheses. Some were plagiarized from criminal-justice textbooks, he said. One was less than five pages long and included a single source.

When the students learned that they would not be graduating because of their failed exam and seminar papers, a group of them took the matter to the president of the college, Stanley F. Battle.

They argued that they were not sufficiently prepared for the exam because the department did not plan any study sessions before the test, and that the department had unfairly judged their seminar papers as inadequate. Mr. Battle told department officials to allow the students to take a makeup exam on April 19. Again, all 10 students failed the test; several left together in the middle of the exam.

The 10 students who failed the exam found support among other students who had grievances against the department, some of whom had passed the exam the semester before but had received failing grades on the seminar paper. Together, they had filed a lawsuit in Baltimore City District Court against the college on April 11, saying that the college had violated its contract with its students. In their lawsuit, they sought punitive damages of $2,500 and demandedthat the college change its requirements to allow them to graduate without having passed the exam or the seminar paper.

Court documents include copies of nearly identical letters from 14 students to Mr. Battle, arguing that the other course work they completed in the program should be sufficient for graduation and that the students were not given proper notification of the comprehensive exam. They did not specify how the information they received about the exam was incomplete.

According to Alice Freeman, the lead plaintiff in the April 11 lawsuit against the college, the president began to take their demands seriously when he was served with court papers. "That woke him up," she said.

After the lawsuit was filed, the president informed the faculty members in the criminal-justice department that he was considering letting the students graduate despite their failure to complete the requirements, according to Mr. Monk. He says that many members of the department were outraged at this news. Other members of the department did not return repeated telephone calls seeking comment.

Finally, in an emergency meeting with the department's faculty on Monday, Mr. Battle announced that he had told the students they would be graduating on Sunday.

"He told us that we were in a capital campaign, that we couldn't afford any bad publicity," Mr. Monk said. "I said, 'But they didn't pass the exam. They walked out of the makeup. They plagiarized papers.' He said, 'I know, but I have to let them graduate.'"

Mr. Battle declined to describe the events leading to the lawsuit or his response to it, saying only that the college is planning an academic review of the criminal-justice department and that the graduate students were upset because of the way "information was shared with them" by the department. He said that the lawsuit against the college had been dismissed, and that he was not sure whether the students named in the lawsuit would be graduating on Sunday.

However, a list of students slated for graduation provided to The Chronicle includes the names of seven students who also appear on a list of students who failed the April 19 makeup exam and 10 students who also appear in the lawsuit against the college. Also, Ms. Freeman said that, to the best of her knowledge, she and 17 other students who joined in the lawsuit have been told they will be receiving master's degrees at Sunday's graduation ceremonies.

For Joycelyn Evans, the only student set to graduate on Sunday who successfully completed the requirements for graduation -- and the first student in Coppin State's criminal-justice department in six years to write a graduate thesis -- the fact that many of her classmates will be graduating in this manner is upsetting.

"I was so proud of myself," said Ms. Evans, a full-time parole officer and mother of three. "Do you think companies are going to hire someone with a master's degree from this school? I want my money back. But how do you calculate the value of this wasted effort?"

According to Ms. Evans, several of her classmates have mocked and harassed her for her academic efforts. "They've called me a sucker," she said. She is strongly considering filing a lawsuit of her own against the college, and is undecided about whether she will attend the graduation ceremonies.

"What's the use of sharing a stage with people who didn't earn the degree?" she said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------