Former UNLV student sues school over poor grade

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005 | 8:39 a.m.

A former UNLV graduate student is suing the university's history department over a grade dispute.

In a complaint filed Jan. 12 in District Court, Robert W. Whitney Jr. alleges that history professor Eugene Moehring's negligence contributed to his poor mark in a historiography class and that Moehring's superiors in the department did not allow him to properly challenge the grade.

Whitney also claims that Moehring discriminated against him and other students on ideological grounds and that then-graduate coordinator Andrew Bell failed to help Whitney secure financial aid.

Whitney, who is representing himself in the suit, is asking for the university to pay compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $10,000, including refunding a $16,000 loan he took out to pay for his tuition, living expenses and books.

Whitney does not list any specific legal arguments in the suit, which names Moehring, Bell and history department chairman Hal Rothman.

The professors, the history department and UNLV have not been officially notified of the lawsuit, UNLV attorney Richard Linstrom said, speaking on behalf of the professors.

Linstrom said student privacy laws forbid him from discussing the case or Whitney's allegations until he officially responds in court.

"Generally speaking, the courts are not the proper venue for academic disputes," Linstrom said.

The case and another suit in District Court still pending negotiations are isolated incidents, Linstrom said.

"Most students don't go running to District Court when they have a dispute with their grades," he said.

Whitney was not reachable Tuesday because his listed phone number was out of service, but his complaint alleges that Bell denied his request to have his grade changed and ordered him not to pursue his challenge with further appeal.

Whitney also alleges that Bell was negligent in helping Whitney secure graduate tuition reimbursement and a paid internship for which he says he was eligible.

According to open university records, Whitney completed his bachelor's degree in history at UNLV in August 2003 and enrolled that fall in the master's program. His dispute with Moehring began in summer 2004 and he has not registered for a class since.

Whitney alleges that Moehring repeatedly began class by announcing "Let's get this done so we can all go home or go out and have a beer." Moehring would then race through his notes and the three-hour graduate class never lasted more than two hours, according to the suit.

Because the class did not have any textbook, Whitney writes in the complaint that he was forced to rely on incomplete notes to complete his final essay.

"It was the speed of Dr. Moehring's lectures and his desire to go home early, his negligence, that resulted in my below graduate-level performance," Whitney writes.

In teaching the historiography class, Moehring also portrayed Americans in Whitney's ethnic group -- those with "Anglo Saxon origins" -- in a negative light and "did not like students with traditional or conservative views," Whitney alleges.

If a student took a conservative or traditional viewpoint in a paper, Moehring "would consider those views wrong, not simply different."

Moehring, as with his colleagues, said he could not comment on the case, but he did describe the historiography 740 graduate class that resulted in the dispute.

Historiography, Moehring said, is the study of how history has been interpreted in the past. His class looked at several major historical events, from the Civil War to the New Deal, and reviewed how interpretations of history have changed depending on the historian, the times and the culture. Since the 1960s, many historiographers have centered their critiques on those left out of the dominant historical narratives, including minorities, women and the working poor.

"Almost every historian has an interpretation," Moehring said.

Another UNLV student, undergraduate music education major Matthew Nishimoto, sued the university and the Board of Regents in November 2003 after he received a incomplete grade in a private guitar class.

Nishimoto, who is still enrolled at UNLV according to university records, claimed in his suit that instructor Ricardo Cobo changed his grade from an A to an incomplete because Cobo did not like Nishimoto's instructor.

In the university's response, attorneys denied the allegations and said Nishimoto's grade was changed by department chairwoman Isabelle Emerson because Nishimoto failed his jury presentation. Nishimoto was given the opportunity to retake his jury to pass the class.

Nishimoto claimed his appeals to administrators went unanswered until it was too late to formerly challenge his grade. He asked the court for a temporary injunction because the incomplete grade was stopping him from enrolling in future classes, and for compensatory damages for delaying his education.

The dispute is still pending negotiations, Linstrom said. Nishimoto's attorney did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

Students who have a grade dispute must file a complaint with the department chair, UNLV spokeswoman Hilarie Grey said. If the department chair refuses to change the grade, students can then appeal to the dean of the college, but students must forward the appeal themselves.

The dean usually has the final say, Grey said, but in extraordinary or controversial circumstances where facts are in dispute, the dean may choose to take the matter before a committee of faculty and students. Grades are only changed if an administrator finds that a student was treated unfairly, the grading was capricious or if a UNLV policy was not followed.