Ex-VCU official opposed degree

The coordinator of the program through which former Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe received his bachelor's degree says she argued from the start that he should have received his degree from the University of Phoenix, not Virginia Commonwealth University.

Linda L. Spinelli, who retired in May as the degree investigation began, said yesterday that she objected from the moment she received Monroe's transcripts from her supervisor, Jon Steingass, who was then dean of University College. That's because Monroe didn't have enough credits from VCU to receive his degree.

"Immediately I recognized that although Mr. Monroe had plenty of acceptable transfer credits, he would need to earn 30 from VCU," said Spinelli, who was coordinator of the bachelor of interdisciplinary studies program, which is part of University College.

She said she informed Steingass of the problem that same day.

But through his attorney, Steingass yesterday said he wasn't initially informed of Monroe's VCU credit deficiency. He also said he never personally gave Monroe's transcripts to Spinelli. "If [the investigators] have the transcripts, they ought to see whose fingerprints are on it," Richmond lawyer Jay J. Levit added.

Steingass resigned during the investigation into how Monroe was awarded a degree after receiving only six credit hours from VCU, when he should have taken 30 credit hours to fulfill VCU's residency requirement and its accreditation standards.

Spinelli described the chain of events that led to the degree in an account addressed to Dan Ream, president of VCU's faculty senate. Her account was sent anonymously to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and its contents were confirmed yesterday by Spinelli.

On Wednesday, Spinelli said she was interviewed for nearly three hours by state investigators conducting a probe of the Monroe degree at the request of members of the General Assembly. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission is scheduled to give its report to the House Appropriations Committee on Oct. 20.

Monroe, now police chief in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, N.C., was shown favoritism and did not meet the academic requirements for the degree he was awarded in May 2007, VCU concluded in the report it sent to its accreditation agency Sept. 5.

Steingass has denied that his resignation in July was the result of disciplinary actions resulting from VCU's investigation. In an interview with The Times-Dispatch last month, Steingass said he approved Monroe's degree because he believed he was following the wishes of VCU President Eugene Trani. VCU's investigation found that Trani was not at fault.

Spinelli's account to the faculty senate is her first public statement to describe in detail how Monroe came to receive the degree, which the university has said it cannot rescind.

Spinelli said she decided to speak out because a resolution before the faculty senate, which concerns the treatment of faculty during the investigation, contains a version of the events that attempts to make her the scapegoat for the degree scandal.

She said the timing of her retirement was a coincidence, and she denied a rumor that she is Harry Potter -- the anonymous tipster whose e-mail triggered the investigation a year after the degree was awarded.

In her account to the faculty senate, Spinelli counters Steingass' public statements that he became aware that Monroe lacked enough VCU credits only when she gave him the graduation application in the spring of 2007.

Steingass maintains that he and Spinelli didn't discuss the missing credits until she refused to sign the application about two months before Monroe was to graduate. But Spinelli says they discussed it after he gave her the transcripts in December 2006.

Spinelli said she went into Steingass' office and told him Monroe would need 30 VCU credits. She said she also told him Monroe would need fewer credits if he completed the degree through the University of Phoenix.

"Dean Steingass told me that I needed to review the transcript again and see if I could be more flexible," Spinelli said.

She later repeated her concerns to Steingass.

"I was told I needed to determine a way to make this happen," she said. "At this point, I felt it was a done deal and there was nothing I could do to stop it."

Spinelli said she then suggested to Steingass that "perhaps VCU could give Chief Monroe an honorary degree. Of course, that was not acceptable."

Spinelli described that suggestion as "grasping at straws," and said her back-and-forth with Steingass on the credit requirements occurred on the same day she was given the transcript.

She said she was told that day that Monroe needed to graduate in May 2007. "I truly was dumbfounded since there was no way Chief Monroe could complete 30 credits in one semester," she said. "That was when I realized that none of my objections or suggestions was going to be considered."

At that point, she said she told Steingass that Monroe needed to complete six writing-intensive credits "at the absolute minimum."

Spinelli also said she was never contacted by Monroe to discuss the program. Most interdisciplinary studies students are adults, she said, and it is their responsibility to contact her and submit a curriculum plan that followed the program's requirements.

"Chief Monroe never assumed any personal responsibility to contact me," she said, adding "since I felt this was going to be done deal from the outset, I did not feel I had any reason to contact Mr. Monroe."
Contact Karin Kapsidelis at (804) 649-6119 or kkapsidelis@timesdispatch.com.