VCU board changes policy, reserves right to revoke degrees
Without referring to former Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe, Virginia Commonwealth University today revised its policies to make it easier to revoke a degree such as the one he was improperly awarded.
“The university reserves the right to revoke any degree, certificate or other university recognition for cause,“ the new policy approved by the Board of Visitors states.
Previously, the board’s policy was to revoke degrees only for academic misconduct. The board had said that policy stood in the way of revoking the bachelor’s degree Monroe was awarded in 2007.
Monroe, now chief of police in Charlotte/Mecklenberg County, N.C, said last month he’s considering returning the VCU degree and earning one at another school.
A spokeswoman this week said Monroe has not reached a decision, and VCU Rector Thomas Rosenthal said after the board meeting that he has not heard from Monroe. Monroe should have taken 30 of 120 credit hours at VCU. Instead, he took six credit hours, or two courses, and received additional credits online from the University of Phoenix.
In other action yesterday, the board:
- Named board member and former Del. Anne G. “Panny” Rhodes of Richmond to succeed Rosenthal as rector on July 1, when a new president is scheduled to succeed Eugene P. Trani.
- Revised policies to allow in some cases for parental notification of students receiving mental health treatment if there is a substantial likelihood the students could harm themselves or others. Also adopted were new procedures allowing parents to obtain educational records of students who are their dependents.
The changes, a response to the Virginia Tech shootings by a student in 2007, also expanded into a campus-wide policy VCU’s threat-assessment procedures, which had been developed for faculty and staff.
Reader Reactions
I tend to agree with the last poster (11:03 PM). Since the beginning of this farce, I’ve had good reason to believe that it started with Doug Wilder’s whims. And yes VCU administrators (including Dr. Trani) became awfully stupid, awful quickly. Its a crying shame to tarnish your stellar career, all for one traveling beat cop. This goes to show that a PhD doesn’t make one smart.
Furthermore I believe that Monroe’s degree could’ve been rescinded all along, but ‘the board’ simply lacked courage. A PhD can’t provide you courage either!
TO: SamWhatAm
Monroe does not even have a degree from Univ. of Phoenix. As far as we know he may not even qualify for one from the on-line school. 1 would think that if he did, he would have returned the unearned VCU degree a long time ago and gotten one from U of Phoenix. It is too late for Monroe to save any integrity now, he has shown us all what he is about.
To: graduatedtwice
But are you black, and do you act like Doug Wilder is just the bestest Governor of Virginia and Mayor of Richmond there’s ever been?
A lot of VCU administrators were cowards,but IMHO, the only criminal is Doug Wilder.
It looks like Chief Monroe is not going to lose the Chief’s job in Charlotte, but he has lost his integrity, until he gets a degree, from somewhere other than University of Phoenix.
Honestly this Rodney Monroe situation does not surprise me and is probably does not surprise most people who have worked for VCU. I do not think that I have seen a policy that cannot be bent for certain people and because VCU has so much control over everything here in Richmond, even complaining about issues of wrongdoing is not an option.
I am really outraged by this whole incident with VCU….I graduated in May of 06 and had two classes left to take in the summer. I was told the Degree would be mailed to me in October…long story short when the Degree failed to appear I contacted VCU and was told that I still had two more classes to take. When I had already been approved to walk and graduate in 2006! How can I be forced to go back and take two more classes when I had proof that I was approved to graduate, and here is the chief of police just being handed a degree. How unorganized can this University be???? Can I get a refund for my last two classes then???? Ridiculous!!!!!!! Now that I am looking into a Masters there is no way I will ever consider VCU!
Fact, VCU sold the City of Richmond a college degree for their Chief of Police, Rodney Monroe. VCU must revoke the degree. Mr. Monroe signed an application for his degree that indicated he earned the required amount of VCU credits to graduate - He lied. This is grounds enough to revoke the degree. What part does the BOV not understand?
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