Student may challenge his expulsion from Florida A&M's law school
October 19, 2009
A former student is entitled to make a case that he was unlawfully expelled from Florida A&M University College of Law after being falsely admitted in 2007, an intermediate Florida appeals court has ruled.
Florida's 5th District Court of Appeals said on Oct. 16 that the student, Brian Morris, had been denied due process of law. It ordered a lower court to consider Morris' arguments that he is entitled to continue at the school as a student in good academic standing.
The law school, which is located in Orlando, Fla., admitted Morris under its conditional admissions program, a summer skills program for students who fall below regular admissions standards, the court said in its ruling. After he registered for the summer program but before he started, he received a letter from the school saying that it was fully admitting him starting in the fall. Regular admission required Morris to attend orientation in the fall and to pay a $200 nonrefundable enrollment fee.
Morris decided to attend the summer program anyway, but he fell below performance standards. The school notified him in a letter that it was removing him from the summer program. The letter did not mention his admission to the fall class.
Although he did not attend orientation for the fall semester and did not pay the $200 fee, he enrolled in fall classes and was admitted. His grade point average during his first semester was 2.667, above the minimum required for continued enrollment.
The university's auditing committee began investigating the law school's admissions office while Morris was in the second semester of his first year because of an unrelated grade-tampering incident. During the investigation, an assistant director, whom the school alleged knew Morris and his family, admitted fabricating the admissions documents that enabled Morris to enroll in the fall.
Administrators said that the admissions director admitted that he and another employee had entered information into the school's computer system that enabled Morris' regular admission. Both employees were fired.
Morris was not allowed to confront the terminated employees, and asserted that he was unaware of the fabrication, the court said.
The school expelled him in March 2008 for fraudulent admission and issued a final order on the matter a few months later.
In reversing the trial court that sustained Morris' expulsion, the three-judge appellate panel found that the law school violated state law requiring notice and a hearing on student disciplinary matters. It also found that the school's final order dismissing Morris, which included a "clear inference" that he participated in the fraud, depended on disputed facts that required review.
The panel distinguished Morris' situation from other academic expulsion cases not requiring notice or hearing.
"[T]he fact remains that [the law school] granted him admission as a student for the fall term, prior to his poor performance in that [summer] program," the panel reasoned. "It appears that the primary the reason for Morris' expulsion is the alleged fraudulent misconduct rather than poor academic performance."
Representing Morris was Joseph Morrell, a solo practitioner in Orlando. He was unavailable for comment. Representing Florida A&M University College of Law was Richard Mitchell, a shareholder with GrayRobinson. He also was not available for comment.
Leigh Jones can be reached at ljones@alm.com.
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