VCU to set up whistleblower help line
Virginia Commonwealth University will set up a confidential help line to make it easier for a whistleblower to stop an ethics violation such as the one that led to the improper awarding of a bachelor's degree to Richmond's former police chief.
The tipline will be set up next month by an outside vendor to ensure confidentiality, VCU faculty and staff members were told today at a campus forum on ethics.
VCU President Eugene P. Trani said the controversy over the degree awarded to Rodney Monroe, now police chief in Charlotte/Mecklenburg County, N.C., should never have happened.
"It has done a significant amount of damage to the university's reputation," Trani said.
But it could have been avoided had one person spoken up, he said.
Trani read a letter from VCU's accreditation agency absolving the university of further action in the case.
The ethics discussion is one of the steps the university has implemented as result of its investigation into how the degree was awarded.
A spokeswoman for Monroe said today he has still not made a decision on whether he will return the degree.
-- Karin Kapsidelis
Reader Reactions
VCU does not know what Honor means other than honoring an unearned degree such as the one they sold to the City of Richmond for Rodney Monroe. The problem VCU did not anticipate is that with widely available forums such as this one in the RTD and many others, their dishonest awarding of the degree will not go away as they thought.
About cheating & the honor code at VCU: A few years ago, in a 400-level class I was taking there, a student informed the professor about cheating during an exam. The professor, who’s still a highly respected researcher there—not an assistant or associate prof (and not some honorary “distinguished” prof)—he ridiculed the whistleblower in front of class.
He didn’t mention her name, but he told the told the class about her report to him. Dripping with sarcasm, he said “and this person CLAIMS to have seen a few of you cheat.“ (A few began snickering at his obviously sarcastic tone of voice). He then handed out pieces of white paper—supposedly so people could cover their exams from wandering eyes.
Still smirking, he said “These make great paper airplanes.“ And about half of the class erupted in laughter. (I don’t think the whistleblower was laughing though).
So really there’s not enough of an honor code at VCU. At least it isn’t taken seriously.
LMAO “had one person spoken up”?? Like…oh, I dunno…Trani himself?? Cause he didn’t know. Whatever. VCU’s reputation was NOT ruined in the fact that the incident happened but in the fact that SO many people (including Trani) tried to cover it up and NO ONE corrected it. Nothing was done. His degree wasn’t revoked (as it should have been) and he wasn’t made to finish the required courses. VCU has MADE this whole incident a joke and the fact that they are now trying to save face by making some whistleblower programs is ridiculous since by VCU policy any accused has the right “to face their accuser”. The honors policy at VCU doesn’t even allow students to turn in other students they see cheating in class without revealing their identity so why should we believe this program deserves more? Is VCU going to abandon their University Rules and Policies for the whistleblower program but not for Academic Affairs which oversees the Honor Policy?? Talk about hypocrits. And THATS why we have a 44% retention rate at VCU. Too much stupid and not enough common sense.
Monroe said months ago that he was going to either give the degree back or get one somewhere else. I don’t think he is capable of getting one elsewhere. I guess only VCU was willing to sell him one, and only the City of Richmond was willing to pay for it. According to Mr. Wilder, (Sunday television interview) Monroe did nothing wrong - yeah right. Wilder also said he wishes everyone would forget about it so the whole thing would go away. Hmm. maybe Wilder can go away, so we can all forget about him.
As a 1983 graduate of VCU I feel like the degree I earned has been tarnished by greed and low moral standards created by people this community trusted. I think the whistleblower hotline is a great concept, but, like Mr. Trani stated, “it never should have happened”. It’s a little late to take action now. Monroe, if you read these comments, give the degree back. You didn’t earn it. And, as for you Mr. Wilder ( $150,000 ) in salary, you should quietly disolve into the sunset. You knew about that degree as I am sure a number of Monroe’s collegues at RPD knew as well.
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