Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506090077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Deborah Carboni's most immediate concern is continuing classes at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Tech, and she asked a judge to prevent the school from expelling her until her case can be heard.
A four-hour hearing in U.S. District Court in Roanoke on Thursday failed to resolve that dispute, and Judge James Turk gave both sides until next week to settle the issue of Carboni's reinstatement on their own.
Carboni is a fourth-year student in the veterinary medicine program. The academic year began May 8.
"Unless this court grants the injunctive relief requested, I will be unable to continue with my final year of studies, losing the opportunity to graduate with the classmates I have known and studied with for more than three years," Carboni told the court.
The fourth year of the program entails clinical rotations treating animals, putting to use academic knowledge students have gained during the first three years of the program. A delay between studies and starting the clinical work would have "obvious and irreparable repercussions," her lawsuit said.
Carboni's expulsion stemmed from a makeup test she took in April in her urology course after she failed the original test.
Her lawsuit gives this account:
Carboni arrived early at the designated conference room and went to bathroom because she felt ill. She brought her class notes with her for some last-minute cramming. She left the bathroom at test time, "inadvertently leaving her folded notes on the bathroom floor," the suit says.
An hour into the unsupervised exam, Carboni again felt ill and went to the bathroom for a while. As she left the restroom, her professor and the department secretary confronted her in the hall. The secretary searched the bathroom and found nothing.
After some consultation with Dean Blair Meldrum, two female employees of the college took Carboni into the bathroom and ordered her to undress and take off her boots to check for notes. None were found, but Carboni said she later volunteered that there were notes in the bathroom that she had looked at prior to the exam.
The dean did find some notes of Carboni's in the conference room, but she denied she had used them to cheat.
The first student honor board in seven years was convened to hear the case and recommended Carboni be suspended for six weeks.
The proceeding was a "sham," she argues; the inexperienced board never was advised that it had to find her "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," and one of the accusing professors sat in on the proceeding, "intimidating" board members.
She appealed her suspension to the faculty review board, which approved the honor board's recommendation without listening to or reading the record, as required, the suit says.
"It is well settled that state universities are subject to the requirement of due process in connection with any disciplinary proceeding brought against a student," the suit says.
Dean Meldrum told Carboni she could not retake the urology test she was in the process of completing when she was strip-searched. Thus, she was expelled May 31 for failing urology.
Larry Hincker, spokesman for Virginia Tech, said that as far as the university is concerned, the matter has been resolved by the honor board. He said Carboni has been dealt with fairly, and that even without the strip search, there were grounds for the honor board to reach the conclusion it reached.
Turk will schedule another hearing next week if the two sides cannot resolve the issue.
Named in the suit are Meldrum, associate dean for academic affairs at the veterinary college; Phillip Sponenberg, professor of pathology and genetics and faculty adviser to the honor board; Don Waldron, coordinator of the urology course; and Rene Armstrong, admissions coordinator for the college and Meldrum's administrative assistant.
Staff writer Matt Chittum contributed information to this story.
by CNB