A former Virginia Commonwealth University dean said he approved Rodney Monroe's graduation application because he believed that's what VCU President Eugene P. Trani wanted.

S. Jon Steingass said in an interview yesterday that he was told in late 2006 by Robert D. Holsworth, then dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences, that the president's office was "very interested in Rodney Monroe getting a degree from VCU."

Yesterday's 35-minute phone interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch was Steingass' first public account of his involvement in the scandal over the former Richmond police chief's degree. Steingass said he wanted to address the university's assertion that he was disciplined for his role in the the degree flap and maintained that he resigned his VCU post to accept another job.

Steingass said he was not pressured by Holsworth to approve Monroe's application but felt he had no choice but to sign the document after the coordinator of the degree program refused to approve it.

"As an administrator there's a culture that requires administrators to fully address the president's wishes, even without a direct order. There's an implied pressure there," Steingass, former dean of the University College, said.

"By the time it got to me . . . I was backed into a corner."

He said he "didn't have a decision to make. That was the decision that was handed to me."

Holsworth, a professor of political science and a special assistant to the provost, said yesterday he doesn't doubt that at some point he told Steingass of Trani's interest in Monroe's degree, which was well-known among VCU's leadership.

"It's certainly plausible I would have told Jon that the president's office was interested," Holsworth said.

But he said he was not acting as an intermediary for Trani's office. Rather, he was acting on Monroe's expression of interest through an assistant professor of criminal justice, Robyn D. Lacks.

And, Holsworth added, "I know that I never asked Jon to break a rule or anything like that."

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By the time he left VCU in July for another job out of state, Steingass had been interviewed six times by university investigators and an outside consultant from Deloitte Financial Advisory Services. He said he gave the same account each time, including his assertion that Holsworth had served as a messenger for Trani's office.

Steingass and Holsworth were singled out in a report Sept. 5 by VCU to its regional accrediting body on how Monroe, then Richmond's police chief, got his bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies without meeting the university's requirement that he complete at least 30 of the credit-hours at VCU.

Monroe finished just six of his total 124 credit hours at VCU.

The report did not say specifically what Steingass and Holsworth had done wrong.

Allegations that the degree had been awarded improperly arose in May, on the day Monroe announced he had agreed to become police chief in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, N.C. VCU conducted a five-week investigation, which concluded in late June that unnamed officials had made "serious errors in judgment" in awarding the degree.

Provost Stephen D. Gottfredson said Steingass and Holsworth resigned their positions as an alternative to being removed, but Steingass said yesterday that assertion was false.

"That was never, ever discussed," he said. "I don't know where he came up with that fantasy."

Steingass said he resigned as dean on July 1 to take a job in another state, and that Gottfredson wanted to "sit on" Steingass' resignation letter for two days before accepting it.

The provost accepted the resignation "with regret" July 3 with a letter that said he was saddened by the decision. There was no finding of fault or mention of discipline in Gottfredson's letter.

Neither Trani nor Gottfredson could be reached yesterday for comment. Attempts to reach them were made through a VCU spokeswoman.

VCU's internal investigation exonerated Trani of "undue influence" in the awarding of the degree. The president said in a statement June 27 he had "no involvement whatsoever . . . other than expressing my view that the possibility of Chief Monroe completing his degree at VCU was a great idea."

However, Trani added, "I am also now more aware than ever that an enthusiastic, energetic president with lots of ideas may, however inadvertently, impact the behavior of others."

. . .

Holsworth also denies resigning under a disciplinary ultimatum. He said he resigned as dean in early July in frustration with the university's internal investigation, which he and Steingass described as biased and bullying.

Holsworth still was working out the details of his new duties, at the same annual salary, when Gottfredson told the board of visitors privately July 8 he had accepted Steingass' resignation, proposed terms for Holsworth's resignation, and given Lacks a "letter of counsel and caution."

"I had not been informed," Holsworth said in an e-mail message Sept. 6, the day after VCU released its report to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

The report's assertion of discipline prompted Steingass to contact The Times-Dispatch through his attorney, Henrico County-based labor and employment lawyer Jay J. Levit.

Steingass accepted a job in late June, but he won't say where. He said he had been offered a job by a "large proprietary university" last November but was persuaded to stay by Gottfredson, who arranged a salary increase of $25,000.

Steingass, an untenured administrator who began at VCU in 2001 as director of student advising, said he continued to look for other job opportunities. "I'd taken the University College as far as I could take it," he said.

He recalled talking to Holsworth about Monroe's degree around Thanksgiving 2006. He remembers the conversation as face to face, while Holsworth said he talked to Steingass' assistant about setting up a meeting between the dean and Lacks to determine what Monroe would need to receive his degree.

Steingass regarded Holsworth as a messenger for the president's office. "He wanted to inform me that the president's office was really interested, very interested, in Rodney Monroe getting a degree from VCU," he recalled of the conversation.

Holsworth also asked about Monroe's degree in passing during another, casual conversation, Steingass said, but never pressured him about it. He said they never discussed whether the chief had enough credits at VCU to comply with the university's residency requirement that at least one-fourth of the credit hours be completed there.

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After talking to Lacks and receiving Monroe's transcripts from other institutions, Steingass said he turned over the process to Linda L. Spinelli, then coordinator of the bachelor of interdisciplinary studies program. Spinelli said later that someone "with more authority than me" told her to be very flexible with the application.

Steingass said he does not recall telling her that. "I just put it in her hands," he said. "I let her know there was interest in the president's office for Rodney Monroe to get a degree in the BIS -- what would it take."

He denied pressuring Spinelli to ignore the residency requirement, which he said they never discussed until she refused to sign the application March 1, 2007, about two months before Monroe was expected to graduate. "I did not ever suggest that, indirectly or directly. I did not imply that we needed to waive rules for this guy," he said. Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.