27-year old former nursing student Nicholas Perrino is suing Columbia University to overturn an “F” he received after missing an exam:
Nicholas Perrino was kicked out of the Ivy League institution’s School of Nursing for missing an exam, and now he is suing to get back in.
“I should have went to Yale,” moaned Perrino, who is representing himself in the case.
The 27-year-old Illinois native said he was working toward two master’s degrees last summer, when his grandparents became gravely ill, forcing him to take a few days off.
He told his instructors he would be absent for a skills exam and tried to arrange a makeup, Perrino claims in documents filed June 15 in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Instead, he says, the school failed him in the course – part of a fast-track master’s program. Without the test, the school wouldn’t let him continue his nursing coursework.
Filing academic grievances and appealing to the Columbia provost got him nowhere, he said, and he was withdrawn from the School of Nursing.
“It’s insane,” Perrino said. “It’s not like I killed someone.”
Perrino, who says he spent $65,000 on tuition, did complete a master’s degree in public policy. He says he had a nearly spotless academic record at the School of Nursing.
A Columbia spokesman said he could only confirm Perrino had been a nursing student, and cited privacy rules preventing him from discussing the case.
Perrino is asking a judge to remove the “F” from his transcript, reinstate him at the school and reimburse tuition costs for classes he has already taken.
Presumably, legal action against universities by disgruntled students is fairly common. However, two of Perrino’s statements deserve scrutiny.
First, he claims he “told his instructors” he would be missing the exam. That is far different than getting permission to miss the exam. Had his instructors granted his request, he likely would have said so in the court documents. The more likely scenario is that on the way out the door, he e-mailed his professor to say “sorry, I have an emergency and can’t make the exam,” or something similar.
Secondly, he complains that “it’s not like (he) killed someone.” Actually, there’s a much less compelling case against him had he actually killed someone and not missed the exam. If he ran over someone with his car and the professors flunked him as a result, he may actually have a case. But by missing an exam, he gave them every reason to fail him.
It’s difficult to envision Columbia not having some sort of written policy on unexcused absences for student exams. The fact that Perrino is representing himself may be an indication of how he feels about his chances in court.
{ 8 comments }
He should have went someplace with English courses.
Exactly – he deserves an “F” in grammar.
He, or someone claiming to be him, responded to this in the comments section of a blog [emergiblog]. He also defends his grammar by saying he was misquoted.
My own suspicion is that there’s a lot more going on than what is said in the article. Yes, he had a respectable GPA but he was in an accelerated nursing program AND he was simultaneously working on another degree at the same time. These fast track programs are grueling and you basically have to put your life on hold for the duration. Maintaining the grades is just part of it. There is no leeway for absence from clinical obligations and I don’t see how a person can meet all of the demands of the one program while studying full time for a second degree and taking care of all the other things [eating, sleeping, bathing, pooping, etc.] that nurses refer to as ADLs.
Really, I’m kind of glad this guy is off the nursing track. It sounds like he was spreading himself way too thin.
Although, Rosebud, perhaps you also should have gone some place to study grammar.
I gone to a school with grammar.
“The fact that Perrino is representing himself may be an indication of how he feels about his chances in court”
How he feels, or how every attorney he talked to felt?
Thanks for your interest everyone.
I am actually the student who has filed suit against Columbia School of Nursing.
To briefly address your points:
1. the instructor and course director (acting-director) were both informed 5-6 days in advance of the skills exam I had missed due to a family emergency. Initially there was some confusion as to why I was going to be out-of-town, however, this was clarified it later one-on-one discussion. The course director a few days later had emailed me stating that “arrangements” would be made for me to make-up this missed skills exam. Although I continued to follow up as to when this would take place, I was informed of nothing until I was suddenly and abruptly failed nine days later (via an email…stating that I had not performed the skills test to move on).
Thus, part of my contention is the school stated they would make these make-up arrangments, and instead, decided not to and simply fail me instead.
2. I was never allowed to use the school’s appeal process, despite multiple attempts to enact the process. No one followed through in the administration.
3. Had I known the school would have lied about giving me a make-up date (for 6 skills to be performed which take about 20-25 minutes total), I would have withdrawn from the course and received a “W” rather than an “F”. Thus, I would never have been allowed to be dismissed from the school.
4. Yes, I was a dual degree student studying toward an MS in nursing and an MPH in public health policy. Many student do dual professional degrees (MD/PhD; MD/MBA; MD/MPH; MSN/MPH…etc.). These degrees are not done simultaneously…it’s one degree program at a time. So I was not overwhelmed. I do however attend the School of Public Health full time and work full time as a nurse in a major New York City hospital. I have nearly a 4.0.
5. Yes, I was misquoted by the NY Post–on both instances. The “killing someone” quote was taken out of context and was supposed to refer to an instance where a nurse practitioner student might kill a patient due to malpractice…in those cases it would be reasonable for that individual to fail the course.
If I had received an “F” because of a legitimate reason, then I would have lived with it. However, I believe it was absurdly unfair to fail me because of my family situation and then tell me I was going to have a make-up test and never follow through. Moreover, I get dismissed because of the “F” despite my previous academic standing and multiple recommendations fromo the school’s own faculty and program directors.
Unfortunately, the court was a forced route.
If the facts were stated correctly, then the case does not sound frivolous at all.
Basically,he paid enormous amount of money for his education, university took the money but then has acted unreasonably and pretty much defrauded the student.
The good news is that there should be a very long email trail of what has happened so the truth hopefully will be easy to determine.
A few comments from 1st hand experience:
Instructors often have 100% freedom to assign a grade in cases like this (in the case which I know personally, the University’s written policy pretty much says: instructor decides and instructor does not need to give ANY justification).
An interesting aspect here is that “sick grandparents” is a VERY common (may be the most common) FAKE excuse put forward by students. I am not saying that this student lied, but it might be the reason why the instructor thought that the student was lying.
I’m curious, though, what happened to appeal process. I’d expect that in a conflict like this he’d at least get a written explanation of School’s position.
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