Documents show key figure in FSU's academic scandal had 1 evaluation

TALLAHASSEE - The department that Florida State President T.K. Wetherell harshly criticized for not knowing about the academic fraud in its midst gave one of the key figures in the school's ongoing cheating scandal just one written performance review in her 61/2-year tenure at the school, the Orlando Sentinel has learned.

Brenda Monk, the former assistant director of Florida State's Athletic Academic Support Services group and the woman accused by FSU of telling one athlete to cheat for another, was given an overall rating of "excellent."

"Brenda Monk has been a remarkable addition to our staff," wrote former AASS Director Mark Meleney in the lone review dated Feb. 8, 2002, and obtained by the Sentinel through a public-records request.

AASS has come under fire from Wetherell for Monk's suspected actions and for actions of a tutor Wetherell said "started hollering" answers during an online exam for the course MUH 2051: Music of World Cultures. Approximately 50 student athletes from multiple sports implicated in the cheating have been suspended for 30 percent of their seasons.

The NCAA likely will investigate after FSU submits its final report in the coming weeks.

University spokesman Rob Wilson said he didn't know why Monk received only one evaluation, but he added that supervisors at FSU have the option of not submitting annual reviews for their employees. In such cases, the university considers the employees to have the same performance level as in their last review.

Wetherell criticized AASS in a Jan. 24 interview with the Sentinel, saying its leaders "should have known" of problems. The lack of reviews for Monk begs the question: Did the university fail to exercise appropriate institutional control over its athletic academic advising program?

Such a finding by the NCAA could expose FSU to harsh sanctions.

Mark Jones, a former director of enforcement for the NCAA, told the Sentinel that the NCAA likely would not levy that charge against FSU simply because Monk received just one review.

"Standing alone, that's not going to be a huge red flag if other elements of control and monitoring are in place," said Jones, who now works as the co-chair of the Collegiate Sports Practice at Ice Miller, an Indianapolis-based law firm that helps universities with NCAA compliance issues.

"I don't think that the absence of a performance evaluation itself is going to lead directly to 'A-ha, I got ya!' I think it's going to be broader than that. If they [FSU officials] can show they had reasonable standards, then they're going to be in good shape."

Monk's personnel file shows she was placed on paid administrative leave on April 3, 2007, and later resigned from her $56,000-a-year position, effective July 5, 2007.

In September, without mentioning Monk by name, FSU's Office of Audit Services issued a report that said the assistant director (who also worked as a learning specialist) had "provided answers for an online quiz to a student athlete and asked that student athlete to submit the answers on behalf of another student athlete."

According to past AASS staff lists and organizational charts obtained by the Sentinel through the state public-records laws, Monk was the only AASS employee who was an "assistant director."

The Office of Audit Services report stated that Monk "acknowledged typing papers for students but also indicated that the papers were the students' own words," a violation of department rules. According to the report, staff members had told Meleney that Monk had been typing for athletes, and Meleney "cautioned" Monk "on several occasions."

The tutor who was implicated also resigned from his position, according to the Office of Audit Services report.

Meleney's contract as director of AASS was not renewed, and when contacted by the Sentinel last week, he declined to comment about Monk or on the case as a whole.

Monk, 58, did not return repeated phone calls to her home, and she wasn't home on Monday or Tuesday when the Sentinel attempted to contact her face-to-face.

FSU's initial report last September concluded that both Monk and the tutor were not pressured by anyone else and "only felt the personal pressure they brought on themselves of wanting the university's program to succeed."

Monk holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Mississippi State University and a master's degree in special education from Jackson State University. She served as principal at three public schools in Mississippi and as assistant high-school principal in Mississippi before she was hired at FSU as AASS's assistant director and learning specialist on Jan. 19, 2001.

"Not many people in the country have the training, experience and credentials that Dr. Brenda Monk has," Meleney wrote to FSU's personnel services office in requesting an initial annual salary of $53,000 for Monk. "We advertised the position for over two months and came up with only three viable candidates. Dr. Monk's expertise will elevate our program as one of the top programs in the country."

References praised her.

"She was very professional, very good and very skilled at what she did," Matthew Evans, assistant superintendent for the Rankin County School District in Mississippi, told the Sentinel. "Of course, she worked with middle school students and she showed all of the love and the concern you have to show with middle school students. Quite honestly, I'm surprised she was implicated in any kind of academic misconduct [at FSU]. She's a solid citizen, and she was a great employee for us."

After Monk resigned from FSU, she was hired by Gadsden County Schools as principal of Chattahoochee Elementary in Chattahoochee, a town 45 miles northwest of Tallahassee. The job paid $72,000 a year, according to public records from the school system.

In her application, when asked whether she'd been asked to resign from a position, she answered, "Yes."

"I decided to resign my position at Florida State University because I am no longer able to work in the current environment," Monk wrote. "I am one individual working with 60 students with learning disabilities. I currently work 70+ hours without support. My current position is impossible for me to manage. My supervisor and I agreed that continued employment was not possible because the conditions would not change."

Monk resigned from that job after 62 days, said Gadsden County's assistant superintendent, Sonja Bridges.

Bridges said she believed Monk resigned for personal reasons and that allegations of Monk's involvement in FSU's academic fraud case never were discussed.


Sentinel staff writer Andrew Carter contributed to this report. Josh Robbins can be reached at jrobbins@orlandosentinel.com.