Information act used in Monroe case T-D got information from city police department in reporting diploma issue It was no secret that he took only two courses at Virginia Commonwealth University. Rodney Monroe, then Richmond’s police chief, publicly spoke of that shortly before he graduated in 2007. But far less apparent were how lapses in judgment and university procedures combined to allow him to get that diploma even though he fell far short of requirements for his bachelor’s degree.

The commission that accredits Virginia Commonwealth University said yesterday that it is satisfied with the way the university handled the Rodney Monroe degree case. “We’re finished with it,“ said Belle S. Wheelan, president of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The commission decided VCU “had taken adequate steps to ensure that this was indeed a one-time phenomenon,“ Wheelan said. The commission will require no follow-up action by VCU.

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Board of Visitors this morning changed a key policy that now makes it easier for the university to revoke a degree. The university has been under fire since former Richmond police Chief Rodney Monroe was improperly awarded a degree.