College grad sues NY school after remaining jobless

Trina Thompson tried for four months to gain employment after graduating from the Bronx’s Monroe College in the spring.

Unsuccessful and jobless, Thompson filed a lawsuit against her alma mater July 24 requesting reimbursement for the $70,000 she paid in tuition.

Despite several misspellings in the handwritten lawsuit – filed without a lawyer and with a filing fee waiving “Poor Person Order” – Thompson’s suit questions the purpose of higher education, IU Provost and Vice President Karen Hanson said.

“It does highlight a number of political and social issues that we cannot dismiss,” Hanson said.

Thompson claimed in her lawsuit, filed in the New York State Supreme Court in Bronx, N.Y., that the school’s Office of Career Advancement provided less support than promised.

“The main purpose of a college is going to be to provide the education and the diploma, which they do,” IU junior Robby Racette said.

Career services are part of a university, not its main mission, Racette said.

“I wouldn’t sue because HPER did not get me in shape. That is just an auxiliary part of the IU campus,” Racette said.

Though claims made by Thompson are legally shaky, the case’s publicity has damaged Monroe College, IU Maurer School of Law professor Aviva Orenstein said.

“Even though I have no doubt that Monroe College is going to win, they have certainly lost in the court of public opinion,” Orenstein said.

A college must be mindful of the message it sends prospective students through its advertising, Hanson said.

“Particularly, you see someone saying, ‘I am making such and such per month and I owe it all to such and such,’” she said. “That is not a promise, but it could, particularly with people who are facing these desperate times, hold out a certain kind of expectation that is not realistic. And that is something that the institutions have a responsibility to be a bit more careful about.”

Objective differences between the New York City and Bloomington colleges should not go unrecognized, Hanson said. Monroe has 4,521 undergraduate students as compared to IU-Bloomington, which has 31,626 undergraduates, according to IU Factbook.

“Institutions such as ours are much more complex, much more nuanced, much more subtle about these things,” Hanson said. “But again, we do have a social responsibility.”

The University needs to help out students when they graduate, not only for personal benefit but also societal benefit. Society is formed by college grads, Hanson said. But, she said, it’s irresponsible for a college or university to make specific, job-related promises.

Hanson said she hopes to produce alumni events that offer “short courses based on the popular courses at IU” to alumni located in various cities. For instance, a course in current developments in the Middle East could be offered to a Chicago IU Alumni Association chapter, she said.

“We do want to remain tied to graduates,” Hanson said. “There are certain benefits graduates accrue from being tied to IU and that we accrue by having an active, engaged alumni population. The relationship changes, but I do not know if it is a matter of obligations.”