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Former Queens College student wins discrimination suit

FLUSHING, N.Y. - If only all "F's" were this lucrative.

Former Queens College graduate student Derek Tolbert was awarded $50,000 in a discrimination suit against QC which spanned three years, after Communications Department professors were found to have given other students an unfair advantage in grading their comprehensive examination for a Master's degree in Communications.

Tolbert, an African American student who was pursuing his Master's degree in Communications in 1993, was shocked upon learning that he had failed all four questions on his degree examination, an exam in which complete failure is very rare. Tolbert was even more shocked to learn that one of his Chinese speaking classmates, Denise Lau, had not only passed the examination, but had answered all four questions nearly perfectly, also a rarity for the exam.

When Tolbert approached the professor who had graded his examination, Professor Stuart Leibman, and asked him how this occurred, Leibman allegedly responded that he "cut slack" for the Chinese students and "allowed for" their cultural differences, according to Tolbert's attorney Fred Brewington.

Tolbert was incensed at the Communications Department and in 1996 filed a lawsuit against the college and two of the professors, Communications Department Chair Professor Helen Smith Cairns and Leibman for practicing differential grading treatments.

"Separate and differential treatment, which was afforded to other students was not afforded to Mr. Tolbert," said Tolbert's attorney, Fred Brewington.

Queens College denies any wrongdoing and insists that the verdict will be overturned. The Attorney General, the attorney representing Queens College, has submitted a motion to U.S. District Court Judge, Bernard Friedman, dismiss the verdict.

In a statement issued after the verdict, spokespersons for the college wrote, "It is the College's position that there was no other discrimination of any kind against Derek Tolbert. The exam was fairly graded, and the failures were due to Mr. Tolbert's performance and no other cause. All students who took the comprehensive examination were graded according to the same standards. These pass/fail examinations were graded anonymously. Mr. Tolbert asserted that he was selectively penalized for grammatical, spelling and other errors while foreign language students were given leeway in this regard. Actually, all students taking the test were given equal latitude in regard to minor errors so long as their essays were coherent and well argued. Mr. Tolbert had an opportunity to re take the comprehensive examination, but refused to do so."

Professors Leibman and Cairns, too, deny any wrongdoing on their part. Said Cairns, "The Media Studies Program has never discriminated against anyone. Everyone who knows me knows I would never discriminated against anyone regardless of race, religion, language, sexual orientation, or gender."

"We will be vindicated," Leibman added.

Tolbert, who has since completed his Master's degree in English at Queens College and is now studying law in St. John's University, is looking to put the whole affair behind him, according to Brewington.

Judge Friedman, who lowered the initial damages claim from $500,000 to $50,000, after the verdict was initially reached is expected to rule on the District Attorney's motion to dismiss within the next two weeks.