Al-Dabagh v. Case Western Reserve Univ., No. 14-3551 (6th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseThe district court ordered Case Western School of Medicine to award plaintiff a diploma, despite the university’s determination that he lacked the professionalism required to discharge his duties responsibly. The Sixth Circuit reversed. Lack-of-professionalism finding amounts to an academic judgment to which courts owe considerable deference. The Case Western curriculum identifies nine “core competencies.” First on the list is professionalism. The task of figuring out whether a student has mastered these professionalism requirements falls to the university’s Committee on Students. Although plaintiff did well academically, as exhibited by recommendation letters praising his “academic excellence” in 2011 and 2013, published several articles, and won a special award for “Honors with Distinction in Research,” he received a stinging evaluation about his performance in an internal medicine internship. There were several complaints about his dishonesty, aggressive behavior, lack of preparation, tardiness, poor hygiene, and a DUI conviction. He refused an offer to repeat his internship in order to graduate.
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