CSPPROFILE
Phone: 510-352-0462
E-mail: Rayveronda@aol.com
This Spring 1999 web site is dedicated to the rights of students and their struggles to attain them.
The entire California's Schools of Psychology Profile (CSPPROFILE) Website is revised regularly! Check back here periodically to find service updates, and other information hot off the presses. Because CSPPROFILE is not affiliated or endorsed by the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP), we are able to bring you candid information from present and former students of that school. This page provides two documents that have been widely distributed. The first is an editorial printed this Spring by a number of California newspapers, including some student publications. The second is a letter available to the CSPP community and public. It has some eye opening experiences and information that prospective students and the public may be interested in. (For more links to this site.)
Under the guise of " academic freedom" our students' rights in higher education are abused with impunity. Those who are entrusted and respected for their positions of power are often the ones responsible for these violations. Because of "academic freedom" students have little recourse to justice, even when using the procedures established to protect them.
A good example is the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP). It has for years violated students' rights while taking few steps to correct the abuse. Its own policies, procedures and established educational standards are regularly violated. The complicity of some faculty compromises not only the integrity of the school but the high level of professional ethics we associate with those in the field of education. Sadly, many good faculty can fall victim to retaliation and the social pressures of their peers to silence them form speaking out. After all, they still have to work in that same environment, while the students are transient and have little recourse to ensure their rights.
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accredits these institutions. From my personal experience with this commission it rubber stamps some schools for accrediting. WASC relies on these institutions for its existence, and the commissioners may draw attention to violations in their own schools if they find flaws with others.
Having been involved in a WASC site visit to CSPP some years ago, I saw first hand how WASC ignored what the students told them of the school's problems. As another example, a complaint was filed with WASC concerning serious abuse and violations of laws, policies and educational standards at this same school. Although a well documented complaint was filed that involved grade tampering, the destruction of files in a possible attempt to hide results of biased testing, harassment, and the misuse of financial aid, just to mention a few issues, the complaint was ignored.
If the schools and WASC don't take the responsibility to protect students' rights, then students will have none. Students need to organize more effectively and support from responsible faculty can aid them in attaining their rights. New policies and laws are also necessary to ensure students' rights in the future.
Raymond J. Veronda
AN OPEN LETTER TO STUDENTS, FACULTY AND ADMINISTRATORS
The second is a letter that covers documented experiences by the manager of this web site. It reads as follows:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
ÐIs for enough good people to do nothing"
The California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) recruits new students on a yearly basis and withholds important information from prospective students about the school. Under the guise of academic freedom, CSPP abuses students' rights and falls short in providing the students with the education and services that it claims. Because students have limited opportunities to earn doctoral degrees in public schools, they can easily be drawn into a system such as that at CSPP. Students are unable to transfer units outside of the system should they not be satisfied with the services provided. Retaliation is common for those who might speak out against the violations.
Numerous students at CSPP-Alameda have been the victims of widespread abuse of power at the hands of the administration and some faculty and staff. Students are often helpless in these cases where their rights are abused with impunity. Laws have been broken and the school has intentionally violated its own policies and procedures while ignoring educational standards established to protect students. The student is looked at as $$$ and not as a human being with needs. (Ironically, CSPP produces psychologists and management consultants and you have to wonder what the students are learning from this, and what they are taking with them out into the world.)
Students at CSPP don't have the same rights as those in public schools and it causes tremendous hardships. As difficult as graduate work can be, education should still be a positive experience. At CSPP-Alameda it is common for students to say that they just want to get through the program and never look back. Alumni involvement and contributions attest to this.
CSPP has a pattern of censoring students from speaking out. I have been censored numerous times. Just this 1997 Spring semester a staff member was instructed to remove my information from the students' personal mail boxes, and the administration still attempts to discredit me although I have good documentation and would love the opportunity to debate the issues in a public forum. (This is common practice used by many organizations to cover up sensitive issues they are incapable of dealing with responsibly.) Another example happened this Spring when a number of students were kicked out of a clinical psychology class for wanting to discuss racial and cultural issues. This is not surprising though, because racial tension has been high for at least five years now. According to students, CSPP has not been meeting its commitment to diversity.
For three years I was a co-chair for the CSPP-Alameda Student Association. I took my responsibilities to all the students very seriously and devoted myself to the school. I have talked to many students and have heard unbelievable but true stories concerning abuse at CSPP-Alameda and how the school falls short in providing the services that it promotes. Even to this day I regularly have students that I had not talked to before, approach me with their stories of lack of services and abuse, then apologize to me for not being more vocal themselves. But they fear retaliation. I have also documented many of my own personal experiences from retaliation for speaking out against this abuse and standing up for students' rights. My complaints to the chancellor, deans and faculty on serious issues were generally ignored. The limited policies and procedures established to protect students are often deceitfully manipulated by the administration and some faculty. Their complicity ensures that the abuse will continue. (A common response from the chancellor when I would bring the serious issues to him was, "Well, where are the students that are involved? How come they aren't' here?" Well, they weren't there because they anticipated retaliation, and I saw presenting the issues as part of my responsibilities as a student representative!)
Upon me first being elected co-chair to the Student Association in 1993 I was approached by a student who was almost in tears. She told me of the verbal abuse she received from one faculty member in an attempt to run her out of the program. This was a very bright and promising student that I had personally known. She soon after quit the program because of the harassment she suffered from this faculty member. I have since learned that other promising students have been harassed out of school, in some cases by this same faculty member whose biases were well known and even documented in at least one court case.
In researching the Alameda County Superior Court records I found that CSPP-Alameda is the first school to be sued by a student for wage loss based upon not getting a degree, and also showing that a student can sue a school as a consumer. In other words, she alleged that the school was not providing her the services promised. This student initially won the case but it was overturned in a 1994 appeal through CSPP's high priced attorneys. In another lawsuit filed in 1994 a student alleged sexual harassment, grade tampering and other violations of policies and procedures by CSPP-Alameda. It was quickly settled out of court with the student receiving a substantial cash settlement (I believe $35,000) and other compensations (I believe it was one semester's tuition and her records purged of possible false information).
Over two years ago it came to my attention that the Organizational Psychology (OP) comprehensive exams were not to educational standards established to protect students or to evaluate their knowledge, and at least one faculty member unfairly used his power to influence the grades. These exams are all essay and I openly questioned these violations. Complaints were ignored. This same faculty member then was temporarily appointed dean of the OP department. He had earlier threatened me saying that he was positive I would never make it through the program, and suggested that I stay out of the school's politics. I documented the conversation and immediately reported it to the chancellor, but it was ignored too. Even with his threats and him having this tremendous power, my investigations into students' rights abuses at CSPP continued.
I requested my own personal records as they related to these exams. After first being adamantly denied my own files on these exams by the OP coordinator, I demanded them as law provides. I was then informed by the OP coordinator that she apparently misunderstood some instructions given her and inadvertently destroyed the specific information I wanted, along with that of the other students. I was also told not to share the limited information she did give me with others. The information destroyed could had proven that there were students that did pass the exams that were told differently.
Other ongoing abuses committed by CSPP-Alameda involve the Faculty Committee on Student Evaluations (FCSE). I learned that at least one student was forced by this committee to undergo psychological testing. The committee member confirming this (not a psychologist) argued in its favor. I later learned that another student was unfairly labeled by this committee using similar tactics and her records still reflect false and damaging information. This is what you would expect in Stalin's Russia!
A student being harassed by a dean and faculty member was forced to pay thousands of dollars for units that she was not receiving instruction in. She had to do this to maintain her financial aid status. (When I brought this to the attention of the chancellor and told him that this amounts to extortion and I was going to take action on this, he became uncomfortable in his chair, looked at me, and said, "Don't take this as a threat, but the knife cuts both ways.") This same bright student was forced to remediate a comprehensive exam that she was later told by another professor that she had initially passed, and that she should not have had to do the extra work she had already completed.
Two of the many liabilities at CSPP-Alameda are no longer there, having quit under pressure. But, in their path they left behind a wake of destruction in the lives of students they abused. CSPP refuses to make amends to these students or even admit that the problems existed, although I have them well documented. (There are commonly recognized elements for the effective remedy of rights violations.These are truth, justice, and compensation. CSPP refuses to take ethical action in meeting any of these responsibilities.)
Numerous complaints and grievances were filed against one of these individuals before he terminated in January 1997. From what I understand, Faculty Standards and Review Committee (FSRC) hearings were held but apparently little to nothing happened. Later, an ethical professor filed another complaint against him with the FSRC. (This same faculty member who received the complaints and terminated in January, recently divorced and left for New Zealand to teach. Along with him went an OP student from my class who was close to him for years. She is now a teaching aid at the same university, and in the same department as he in New Zealand.) This complaint seemed to have received a fairly thorough investigation, and the real issue here is that students don't receive the same respect and attention when they file complaints. It is shameful and a travesty of justice that students should be treated in such a demeaning and patronizing manner.
For my efforts, CSPP retaliated against me with harassment and threats and I was deprived of due process while fighting for justice. I have had complaints and a grievance ignored, and my grades were tampered with. (Grade tampering is a criminal offence.) My rights in a grade appeal were violated. The dean who had threatened me earlier was involved in evaluating my comprehensive exams even though I was promised by the administration that he would not be involved because of his bias against me. With his power he manipulated the grades and I was forced to leave CSPP. He was the one involved in alleged grade tampering of the student in the 1994 lawsuit and had earlier tampered with my grades in the Registrar's Office. He is also the same faculty that left for New Zealand with a former student he had instructed numerous times.
While fighting against other students' rights violations at CSPP, the FCSE did not allow me to attend my own hearing(s) for dismissal. When I asked for the records of the hearing(s) and complete evidence against me, they denied me this information. (The FCSE is also suppose to work with students to develop a plan to help them if they have problems before dismissal. This did not happen.) Once again CSPP-Alameda blatantly broke the law by denying me access to my own files and then deprived me of due process. There was no way I could adequately appeal my case without this information even if I were allowed an honest hearing, which could not happen at CSPP.
There have been many other serious violations that I have not listed here. During this 1997 Spring semester I have talked to numerous other students at CSPP who substantiate the ongoing abuses. Many students support my efforts to bring these violations out in the open, yet they are afraid to become personally involved because of retaliation. Retaliation for speaking the truth and questioning abuse of power is no way to run an institution of higher learning, or any organization.
Without the students and responsible faculty, staff and administrators standing up against this abuse at CSPP, it will continue. More promising students will be harmed in the future. Students need to become better organized and demand their rights, not just hope that CSPP, or any school, might give the students what is already theirs. Students' rights and the dignity and respect that any human being is entitled to is not something that can be denied. To respect and honor students' rights is healthy for the students and the school. It is also healthy to bring out into the open violations that are ignored, in order to correct them.
CSPP needs to correct its problems or it won't survive. It must make amends to those students that have already been harmed, and guarantee students' rights in the future to ensure that what has happened in the past will never happen again. Policies and procedures protecting students need to rewritten. There must be a clear contract guaranteeing services and rights to all students before they enter into CSPP, or any private school.
Raymond J. Veronda
(For more links to this site.)
| Home | Services | Clients/References | Related Information | Contact Us! |
| About |