The problem is that it does not end with your little summary.

There are a number of other instances and other parties that have very good reason for grievances against VCU and Trani. Rather than going down that long list, let me point out two things in particular.

Trani, as head of the Richmond Renaissance, has totally messed up the priorities of the City for years. He is indirectly responsible for much of the white elephant corporate welfare nightmares downtown as well as irresponsible riverfront development like Dominion Power.

This past spring, the City finally started to address serious water issues. The ridiculous minimum rates are finally being lowered. The City is finally getting serious about addressing stormwater runoff. Guess which entity objected the most to the idea that there should no longer be a discount for wasting large amounts of water?

Anyone familiar with my writing about VCU and local politics knows I’ve not been an apologist for the university or local big shots, in general. That goes back to SLANT’s origin in 1985 and I still try to call ‘em as I see ‘em.

A university president can’t please everyone all the time. The important thing is to see the whole picture. Overall, I say Trani has been good for VCU and Richmond. Yet, recently I’ve read where people are calling for his head.

A few months ago we saw William & Mary’s president, Gene Nichol, hounded out of his position. I didn’t like what happened there and I don’t want to see it happen here.

The President absolutely wasn’t involved in this matter beyond likely making a general comment like “wouldn’t it be nice for the police chief to have a VCU degree.” Why someone would take that to mean lets give him one - I mean really “give” him one is perplexing. Although the matter is now considered a human resources question, I do hope that VCU will make public the resolution of this horrible mistake - clear Trani’s name once and for all and expose the person or persons who caused this whole public relations nightmare for VCU and the city and Rodney Monroe. We may forget in all of this that while a faculty member may have thought he or she was doing a favor for the chief, I can’t imagine that he is looking at it that way now.

I am proud to say I am not very Richmond, and I say Trani should be forced to retire, 40th Celebration be damned.

In August 2001 my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 large cell lung cancer. She battled tumors for almost three years at the Massey Cancer Center on the radiation table, in the chemo chair, and hospitalized on the oncology floor with pulmonary edema. She ended up on oxygen tanks then in hospice care in the home. My mother did not want to give up and insisted she continue with the blood platelet shots. So every other week I wheeled her under hundred pound body through VCU Medical Center’s doors up until I could no longer move her from the house, several weeks before her death, June 12, 2004.

VCU is corporate owned and does not represent the classical idea of an education, that of the mind, body, and soul.

My mother was an art student at RPI. Lung cancer killed her in 1984. It took her quickly, compared to the ordeal your mother endured.

My mother smoked. Don’t know when or how she got started smoking, but it’s likely she started during her college days.

A lot more is generally known about the effects of smoking since 1960, when free cigarettes were handed out on campuses. But none of the above has much to do with VCU’s current ties to big corporations.

Furthermore, to say there’s something wrong with such corporate ties, without pointing at specific wrongdoings to back that up, doesn’t seem fair or realistic.

Higher education is a big business itself today. While I’m not crazy about all that seems to mean, VCU has to make its way in the real world, competing with other universities. My wishing VCU was more like it used to be in the old days won’t change a thing.

Hey, it was never perfect, anyway. Like you said, at RPI in 1960 it was OK to hand out free cigarettes on campus. At least that’s not going on anymore.

In my above post I stated facts. I didn’t say “there’s something wrong with such corporate ties….”

You seem to agree with my statement that VCU is corporate owned - “Higher education is a big business itself today.”

Isn’t big business’ sole aim is too give us as little as possible while making a huge profit?

In 1960, folk did know that smoking was bad for you. Back in the 1800’s Dostoevsky wrote a passage about the evils of cigarette smoking in his book, “Crime and Punishment.”

FTRea, everything is corporate owned. My passage was merely expressing my sadness over this fact.

I can dig it.

– Terry

University staffs have become more in line with the corporate world - the days are long gone of faculty and staff spending their career at one school - they jump from school to school to increase their salaries and positions. And the pay scales have changed as these nonprofits must offer salaries on par with the corporate world.

The competition for students is fierce. Schools have to update dorms to accommodate students who expect all of the comforts of home. Look at Libraries that resemble Starbucks. Gyms that are nicer than most private clubs. and on and on.

With all that said though, there was a time when VCU took the high road and wouldn’t bow to pressure for the almighty dollar. A certain Richmond businessman approached VCU for an honorary degree. That person’s spokesperson offered a donation of $1 million in exchange for the degree. VCU flat out said NO. And I was proud of them for that - and they were cleary proud as some staff spread that info around Richmond. Another school in the Commonwealth took the money and bestoyed the degree. I wish VCU still have that moral compass - at least I wish the person who did this had a moral compass. Too bad things have changed. But President Trani can make it right. Take away the degree. Take the high road. Let Monroe sue. It’s the right thing to do.

2. At issue is the number of credits Monroe completed *at VCU*. He had 121 credits from other universities, and was apparently told he only needed to complete 6 cr at VCU to earn a degree. No one, to my knowledge, is asserting that he was awarded a degree with only 6 cr total. The residency requirement means that every student is required to take 25% (i.e. 30 cr out of 120 total) of their credits *at VCU*. The rest can be transfer credits.

3. My own problem with Trani is that his statement made him sound incredibly self-absorbed. This was not Trani’s failure, but one of the administration as a whole.

Ethan Labowitz
Student Government Senator
VCU Monroe Park SGA
Chair, Student Life Committee
Academic Representative, Non-Traditional and Interdisciplinary Studies Students
Fan Resident

I am under the impression Monroe was awarded a waiver and recieved his degree. Why is this even an issue? Do you think the parent whose son was killed worried whether Monroe had a degree or not. “No good deed goes undone” The changes Monroe helped implement brought the crime rate in Richmond down. Period. Instead of crying about whether Monroe should have recieved a waiver or not why not worry about who the next Police chief is going to be? Or about the rising fuel costs the department is facing, forcing officers to ride 2/3 to a car?

Bottom line - Monroe may have transferred in 121 credits BUT those credits were from an online, for-profit “diploma mill” and some were not even from an accredited university (they were from the FBI Academy and who knows where else.) Truth be known, the quality of those credits has NEVER been disclosed. Where did he earn them and in what subjects?

VCU is a accredited university and a taxpayer supported school. If VCU had not been accredited, it is HIGHLY unlikely that you or the SGA Senator would have enrolled. Receiving and maintaining accredidation is a really BIG deal. School administrators and faculty work tirelessly to ensure that they stay in good stead with SACS.

What was done with the Monroe degree is a BIG DEAL, despite your claims to the contrary because:
(1) it’s inherently unfair to the tens of thousands of students who paid for the required number of VCU credit hours and completed them. Remember the Rector said that this was the ONLY exception for a living person out of 15,000 degrees
(2) it flies in the face of all Trani has done with VCU over the last 15 years - truly transformed it into a respected university - attracting good students like you (and I’m sure you turned down other schools to enroll at VCU) and increasing the value of all alumni degrees. And it could mean sanctions from SACS
(3) Monroe turned this “questionable” degree into another job and required a BA - deceased recipients of a “pass” won’t do that. So Charlotte was really defrauded.
(4) it opens VCU up to have to accept these types of credit - U of Phoenix online - and others they would never have accepted. How can they say no to you when they said yes, yes, yes to Monroe?
Oh, the list goes on and on and I’ve said too much.

The main reason this is a big deal - the granting of degrees is a sacred duty - VCU has to get it right all of the time and when they screw up, they have to fix it. The degree has to be rescinded.

every degree degree must be earned legitimately, no exceptions. in fact, that’s why universities and colleges around the country give out honorary degrees.

Besides, there are many instances where students are denied graduation because they are short a single credit or where a course won’t transfer in because it doesn’t meet the standards of VCU.

So when someone is awarded a degree where they didn’t meet the requirements and many of those credits are come from questionable institutions, particularly diploma mills and non-academic institutions than it calls for a reevaluation of university policies and practices.

Though I agree about Trani. Despite his questionable decisions, he is the singular reason why VCU is on the map and has a promising future.

Oh yeah, and one more thing. Except for homicide, serious crime in Richmond started declining before Monroe took office.

There has got be more to this city than just VCU. I am disturbed that VCU is holding back the citizens’ version of the Downtown Master Plan. I am angry that it is stopping the city from implementing a badly needed stormwater utility because it does not want to pay its fair share for all of its parking lots’ runoff. I am livid that VCU ignores the city codes and demolishes historic structures. I am resentful that Trani determines so many of the city’s priorities.

If Trani wants VCU to become a real estate empire, an academic front for tobacco industry research and corporate toadies, a diploma mill, then to an extent that is the university’s own problem and the state university system’s problem, but when it effects the city I call home, that’s when I cry foul.

I will say it again, its time for the corporate syncofant Trani to go.

Which universities in Virginia have maintained educational integrity? Those are the ones I will suggest to my nieces.

Who the next police chief will be

Who the next mayor will be

Who the next superintendent of schools will be

Who your next coucil person will be

All of the above.

I don’t dispute your rights to cry afoul. I’m just saying, there’s nothing the public can do about it. besides whine. Let focus on things we can change.

As for being labeled the tobacco university as if it a bad thing. Remember what state your in. Tobacco shaped this state and our country whether we like it or not.

The issue is that academic research has been tainted by secret deals with Philip Morris. Its that the President of VCU, who should know better as the head of MCV, is part of the tobacco industry by serving on the BOD of Universal Leaf.

The public can do something about it. They can recognize the wrongdoing and ask for change. Last time I checked, VCU is still a state university that is given state taxpayer money. Its about time the public start demanding more control over the purse strings.

Gray asked what other schools would be suitable for his niece. I highly recommend the University of Richmond now that they have a fantastic president, Ed Ayers. The University of Richmond would NEVER give away a degree and the faculty members with whom I have interacted are all above reproach. No “monkey business” there. You would NEVER ever hear of the kinds of things that we’ve been hearing about at other area schools. Could Randy Mac make the same claims? I don’t know since at least one of the involved parties is an alumna of that institution. It seems like this whole VCU thing may be providing prospective students with some really great questions to ask of Admission Officers on their college visits this coming Fall. The integrity of the school and those who will be teaching your young niece should be at the top of the list. They will be entrusted with her care and you would be shocked on some of the stuff that goes on in colleges - even in the classroom!!

Finally, VCU Student - the degree granting school has the indisputable job of reviewing transfer credits and has the absolute authority to disquality any credits that aren’t up the standards of the school. They wouldn’t be taking Monroe’s credits away - they would be saying those credits don’t match up to what VCU offers. If you haven’t learned this in school - VCU is a public school. That means that, although money is taken from the private sector in the form of charitable donations, VCU is “owned” by the taxpayers and as taxpayers (I’m one) we have an absolute right to demand that VCU do right by the citizens of Virginia. The Governor appoints the Board of Visitors to assume this responsibility on a day-to-day basis and we must hold them accountable.

So who will be held accountable?

Me a taste-maker? That’s a hoot!

Should Trani be forced out? Isn’t much of this bluster over ordinary things that a large urban university is bound to encounter in the course of doing what it does by its nature?

When a university is growing, that growth is surely going to advantage some people in the community more that it will others.

In my opinion, overall, Trani has steered that growth in a sensible, balanced and responsible way.

It doesn’t mean I agree with everything that VCU has ever done. It does mean I support Trani as VCU’s president.