The Dartmouth Review The Dartmouth Review The Dartmouth Review 25th Anniversary Gala

    The Dartmouth Review     Dartlog     Subscribe     Indian Store     Donate

 

Thursday, May 15, 2003

At Coppin State College, an historically black institution in Baltimore, students who failed the requirements for a masters degree in criminal justice will be graduating anyway after they threatened the school with a lawsuit. (Alas, the story, from The Chronicle of Higher Education, requires registration.)
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.
Once served with a lawsuit, the president of the College reneged:
"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.'"
A lot of kooks think academic standards are inadvisable. Now, it seems, they are a liability. Sheesh.

Posted by Emmett at 10:03 AM

Comments

Post a Comment (we enforce our comments policy)

Copyright © 1996-2008 The Dartmouth Review