The Dean of the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law at the University of Liberia Dr. Jallah Barbu has sharply reacted to the resignation of Associate Professor Lucia Sonii-Gbala, citing gross disrespect and the unilateral drawing and correcting of exam papers as reasons for the rejection of her “foreign mark grades” some students who recently graduated from the university.
By Obediah Johnson
For sometimes now, the UL, particularly the Law School, has been in the public over the surreptitious resignation of two of its Professors who on allegations that students who failed their courses were considered by authorities of the university to participate in the just held 103rd convocation and graduation exercises. The Professors who resigned are Lucia D. Sonii-Gbala, and the former Chief Justice and Chairman of the National Elections Commission (NEC) Counselor Frances Johnson-Allison.
Two of the graduates, including Alimatu Nuri Hutchinson and Ebenezer Wilson were accused of allegedly offering bribe to a staffer of one of the Professors to alter their failing grades. However, the accused have denied the allegation.
In the latest resignation which went viral on the social media, Cllr. Lucia D. Sonii-Gbala pointed out that her resignation was triggered due to the recent change of the final grades of her assigned Applied Legal Studies II Course and the “arbitrary clearance of students who failed” the course for graduation, and “the fact that a request for investigation still remains unaddressed by the University of Liberia.”
“I sincerely thank the immediate past Dean and the LAGSL for affording me the opportunity to instruct and serve as the youngest Assistant Professor of Law at the LAGSL from 2021 to 2023. The experience has been meaningful in the truest of sense. Notwithstanding, we must disengage at this time when the system shows little or no interest in ensuring academic excellence and upholding integrity.”
Earlier on, Counselor Frances Johnson Allison accused both Hutchinson and Wilson of conniving with her secretary, Allen Toe, to change their “D” grades to “C,” to guarantee their graduation.
“I am disappointed to hear that the University Faculty Senate has decided to graduate the students in question despite my testimony to them on a conference call. Based on this fact, I have decided to reinstate my resignation from the Law School since it seems that the university is more interested in graduating students than pursuing academic excellence and integrity,” Cllr. Allison stated.
But in a letter dated June 28 and addressed to Counselor Gbala, the Dean of the Law School, Dr. Jallah Barbu disclosed that Counselor Gbala was never in the employ of the university. However, he admitted that she was only contracted to lecture a course for a semester.
“As far as our records reflect, you are not an employee of either the Law School or the University of Liberia. You were a term contractor for the past semester, whose membership on the faculty depends on renewal of your contract provided you are assigned a course to teach.”
He added that the contract of Counselor Gbala ended at the climax of second semester for the academic year 2022/2023.
Dr. Barbu maintained that he would be acting very unethical and bringing both his integrity and the university’s into question, if he were to support such misrepresentation proffered by Counselor Gbala in her recent communication addressed to him.
He contended that while the subject of her letter renders her resignation and renewal of her contract legally untenable, the rest of its content, especially the issue raised warrant clarifications to demystify her claims which are clearly far from the reality.
The clarifications
On the unilateral change of grade, Dean Barbu claimed that the course was assigned to Cllr. Gbala and him, adding that, she was never a senior lecturer or professor in this arrangement.
“To say you taught the course without adequately disclosing that not only did I teach but I brought clarity to several confusing situations far what you could handle is terrifying.”
He maintained that for that, the students in the class, and it appears to him, a majority of the law students, will quickly and voluntarily attest.
He noted that this alone is arguably sufficient reason to inform Cllr. Gbala that she could not unilaterally evaluate and submit grades for students of that course.
Disregard
He observed that the submission of grades by the resigned Associate Professor was the last of the several disregards of the anticipated collegial respect that a colleague would afford the other in such an arrangement.
“You know clearly that the Principal reason why I paired you with me to teach the course therefore, I will not mention that here. What I cannot hold back is the several unilateral actions that could have resulted to my decision to teach the course throughout the semester while you would only attend the class and do clerical work.”
Dr. Barbu recalled that Counselor Gbala allegedly disrespected him firstly when she drafted a course outline that the both of them could have reviewed and strengthen.
He added that without making any reference to him, she also circulated the outline to the students and when he inquired, Counselor Gbala offered an apology which he accepted.
“I had no idea I had licensed you to indulge in similar conduct until you elected to stay away from class on a number of occasions without notice to me. Again, I had a conversation with you and advised that you inform me whenever you cannot attend. Of course, you are not my student any longer, but again you clearly understood the reasons for my pieces of advice although you elected to ignore them.”
“You recall fully that it was a decision that we will finalize the semester exam although I offered again to allow you to develop the draft. It was baffling that you ignored that arrangement and did not show up despite my repeated follow ups until the day of the exam when without notice to me.”
Dr. Barbu pointed out that he later found out that his Associate Professor was already in the exam hall and had distributed the exam papers to the students.
According to him, he was about to cancel the exam, but declined to do so following the intervention of few persons, which he did not name.
As a result of the gross disrespect to him, Dr. Barbu added that, he was informed by Counselor Gbala that the exam was “opened book” after he raised some observations following the presentation of the exam paper by his colleague for revision.
He further recalled that he advised that the correction of the exam papers be jointly done, but Counselor Gbala “flatly disregarded and proceeded to undertake her unilateral correction” of the papers.
“If this is the basis for which you regard the grades as yours, it is wrong. Both you and I are responsible for the final outcome of the course ranging from the preparation of the course outline to submitting the final grades. This is why I remained engaged at every stage.”
Foreign markings
Dr. Barbu noted that despite his persistent engagement, Counselor Gbala without any regard, singlehandedly corrected the exam papers and submitted them to him with indications that have never been recorded in the history of the Law School.
According to him, the marks of “P” and “V” were the foreign indications placed on the students’ copybooks, something which prompted his inquiry on what they meant, and her answer was “the students plagiarized and almost the entire class.”
Dr. Barbu said students who had the foreign marks on their copybooks began to inquire as they were uncertain on the basis of the marks and what the indications meant.
“The response I received was that you have taken your decision and would not change it. With the uproar and what appeared to be a potential crisis, I gave more attention to the matter. First, I met with the students and informed them that we will launch an investigation and second, I invited you to a meeting.”
He pointed out that his decision taken to invite his colleague was intended to, in a respectful way, inform her that she was in error.
He stated that prior to holding the meeting with Counselor Gbala, he also had a lengthy meeting with Dr. Moses Zinnah, Vice President for Academic Affairs , who informed Dr. Julius Nelson, President of the university on the matter.
“I was clear that the university ws concerned about this matter as the students have reported same. I further advised you that we give students grades, except an “NG” when they are alleged to have committed academic fraud, and for such a grave allegation, the student handbook, which I believed you have read at least in part, mandates an investigation.”
‘If the allegation is found to be true, the penalty is suspension or expulsion. That therefore means we cannot act arbitrarily or contrary to the university’s established rules. Thus, I entreated with you to reconsider her decision as a colleague to avoid a situation of embarrassment which ultimately would arise.”
Dr. Barbu said he was not deterred by his colleague’s insistence to maintain her stance that she was asked to submit grades and could protect her integrity.
He claimed that he reminded the resigned Professor that the both of them share responsibility for the course, and they both agreed for an independent committee to probe the matter.
He added that Counselor Gbala boycotted two separate meetings with both the President and Vice President respectively of the university, something which prompted the UL administration to reach a logical conclusion to submit the matter to a committee.
A committee comprising of representatives from the offices of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Legal Affairs and an independent observer was appointed but again, Counselor Gbala failed to cooperate with the committee.
Review of grades
Dean Barbu disclosed that following the non-cooperative posture of his colleague, the UL administration, through its President instructed him, as senior lecturer over his colleague, to undertake a review of the the students exam papers and report accordingly.
He said he requested the aid of Associate Dean Sumo to undertake a detailed review of the students’ exam papers.
He observed that though Counselor Gbala made very positive comments in the students’ copybooks commending them in most parts of their answers, why did she in turn come back to disqualify them.
Dr. Barbu observed that none of the copybooks he received contained a single comment referencing another copy book for similarity of answers, and on the other hand, the grammar, analysis and general content of literally all the copybooks do not reach close to any publishable material.
According to him, the above were not sufficient to allow them to make a final determination, adding that, “we reviewed the quality of the answers as against the question in order to make a determination.”
From the overall work of the revision, he noted that the students were graded and a report was submitted to Vice President Zinnah.
He claimed that though the UL Administration was magnanimous in dealing with Cllr. Gbala, she had an unjustified and deliberate action to exercise control over a group of persons to deprive them of what is justly due them.
He, however, denied that the department provided clearance to the students for graduation while investigation was pending on the matter.
Dr. Barbu commended Cllr. Gbala for her services rendered at the Law School and wished her well in her future endeavors.