The Virginia Commonwealth University board of visitors will make public the report on its investigation into the improper awarding of an undergraduate degree to former Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe.

The report will be submitted Sept. 5 to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the agency that accredits VCU. At that time, the board will make the report public, according to a statement delivered by Rector Thomas G. Rosenthal after an hour-long closed session.

The board statement also said the university would review and correct deficiencies in its policies and procedures for awarding and revoking VCU degrees, as well as conduct university-wide discussions of the VCU Code of Ethics.

In the statement, the board affirmed the results of an investigation that VCU conducted into the improper aware of a degree to Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe last year. Monroe completed just six credit hours at VCU, which requires transfer students to complete at least 30 credit hours at VCU. Monroe earned the remainder of the 122 credit hours for his degree through other institutions.

The board allowed him to keep the degree because he had done nothing improper to receive it. Monroe has since left Richmond to become chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina.

The board adopted the statement by a unanimous voice vote, but one member who has been critical of the investigation was not present. Novelist David G. Baldacci delivered a nine-page letter to the board yesterday that denounced the handling of the investigation by VCU. He was absent from today's meeting because of an interview in Northern Virginia for an upcoming book.

However, Baldacci released this statement today: "I did not release my letter to the media and have no idea who did. I presented my views to the VCU Board of Visitors (yesterday) and they listened politely. Then, some members of the Board expressed their views. The matter was handled professionally, but ultimately the Board did not agree with my position. However, I stand by the contents of my letter."

In its statement today, the board defended its handling of the investigation, which was conducted by the Department of Assurance Services under the direction of the board's Academic Affairs Policy Committee.

"While the has been some debate concerning the intensity of the investigation, especially in the context of an academic environment , the board had an overall responsibility to find the truth to the extent possible, and believes it appropriately fulfilled that obligation," the board stated.

The board denied that it had attempted to disrupt the process for considering faculty job tenure. Some faculty alleged that the VCU investigation had explicitly linked the tenure prospects of Assistant Professor Robyn D. Lacks to her cooperation in the investigation. Three members of the faculty have resigned their administrative positions after protesting her treatment, and the president of the faculty senate has said Lacks received an apology from Provost Stephen Gottfredson.

Neither Lacks nor Gottfredson has responded to requests for comment. Rosenthal told the Richmond Times-Dispatch last week that the provost had not told him about apologizing to Lacks.

"We regret that there is a perception that the board would take any action to disrupt the normal tenure process," the board stated. "It has not done so, and the board fully supports the tenure policy and process at VCU."

-- Michael Martz