The opinion of the court was delivered by: Marshall, District Judge.
Plaintiffs in these three related cases, Percy McDonald, Robert
Marshall and Kevin Sullivan, are currently enrolled as
second-year students in the University of Illinois College of
Medicine at the Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois (the "College
of Medicine"). All three plaintiffs were charged with cheating on
the June, 1973 freshman certifying comprehensive examination (the
"freshman comprehensive examination"). The charges were heard by
the College of Medicine Committee on Student Discipline (the
"College Committee"), on referral from the Executive Dean of the
College of Medicine. On December 12, 1973, after an extensive
evidentiary hearing at which plaintiffs were represented by
counsel of their choice, the College Committee found that each
plaintiff had cheated as charged and recommended that each be
expelled from the University. The recommendation of expulsion was
tempered, however, with the provision that each plaintiff be
permitted to take the June, 1974 freshman comprehensive
examination and, if he passes it, be permitted to re-enroll in
the College of Medicine as a sophomore in September of 1974.
Pursuant to established and written rules of procedure,*fn1
plaintiffs appealed the recommendation of the College Committee
to the Senate Committee on Student Discipline (the "Senate
Committee") which, on January 28, 1974, upon the evidence adduced
before and the findings of the College Committee, affirmed the
recommendations.*fn2 Thereupon plaintiffs were expelled.
Plaintiffs then brought these actions claiming that the
expulsions deprived them of their property or liberty without due
process of law in violation of rights guaranteed them by the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and
the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. They seek declaratory,
injunctive and money damages relief. Jurisdiction is based on
28 U.S.C. § 1343, 2201 and 2202.
Defendants are the Board of Trustees of the University of
Illinois, a public corporation created and supported by the State
of Illinois, and charged with the responsibility of maintaining
the University of Illinois and all of its colleges, divisions and
departments, including the College of Medicine (Ill.Rev.Stat.
1971, ch. 144, § 22 et seq.), and various officials of the
College of Medicine including the Executive Dean, the members of
the College Committee and the members of the Senate Committee.
The court's jurisdiction of either the subject matter or the
person of the corporate or individual defendants has not been
challenged. In view of the nature of the University of Illinois
as a State created and supported institution and the official
rules of the individual defendants within the University (and
particularly the College of Medicine) and the nature of
plaintiffs' interests in their pursuit of their professional
education and attendant professional careers, the court is
content that jurisdiction is present. Vlandis v. Kline,
412 U.S. 441, 93 S.Ct. 2230, 37 L.Ed.2d 63 (1973); Perry v. Sindermann,
408 U.S. 593, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972); Goldberg v.
Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 90 S.Ct. 1011, 25 L.Ed.2d 287 (1970); Dixon
v. Alabama Board of Education, 294 F.2d 150 (5th Cir. 1961). More
challenging however, is the question of the extent to which the
Court can intrude into and exercise a supervisory hand in the
resolution of the essentially academic disputes which are
presented here under the aegis of the Fourteenth Amendment and
the Civil Rights Act.
Plaintiffs have been pursuing their second-year studies since
their expulsion pursuant to a temporary restraining order issued
by the court on February 1, 1974 and thereafter extended until
today. On February 11, 1974, the court received evidence
(consisting of the transcript of proceedings before the College
Committee) and heard arguments on plaintiffs' motions for
preliminary injunctions, announcing prior thereto, pursuant to
Rule 65(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, that
evidence received at that hearing would be considered by the
court in any trial on the merits.
One final procedural observation is in order before turning to
the merits. Plaintiffs were not jointly charged before the
College Committee. They elected, however, to stand trial together
with the assurance of the Committee that their cases would
receive individual consideration. Here they filed individual
actions which, because they presented common questions of law,
were, for purposes of economy of time, consolidated for hearing.
Each plaintiff's case has, however, received individual
consideration.
In the fall of 1971, Percy McDonald, Robert Marshall and Kevin
Sullivan enrolled in the College of Medicine as first-year
students. Each is black. Each was accepted as a participant in
the Medical Opportunities Program, the purpose of which is to
increase minority group participation in the medical profession
through, inter alia, the utilization of standards of admission to
medical school different from those employed in screening
non-participating applicants.
McDonald had graduated in the upper 10% of his class from Lane
Technical High School in Chicago in June, 1967. His undergraduate
work in biology was done at the University of Illinois in
Chicago. He had applied for and been accepted as a medical
student at Loyola University in Chicago before matriculating at
the University of Illinois. Throughout his college days he had
been employed full time in a dress shop. During the summer of
1972, after one year of medical school, he worked at Cook County
Hospital and the Veterans Administration Hospital as a laboratory
technician.
Marshall graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago in
June, 1963. He enlisted in the Army from which he was discharged
after service in Viet Nam in April, 1967. After a semester at
Loop Junior College, he enrolled at Roosevelt University in
Chicago from which he received a Bachelor of Science degree in
June, 1971. He applied for and was accepted as a student at the
Chicago Medical School before matriculating at the University of
Illinois.
Sullivan graduated first in his class from Calumet High School
in Chicago in June, 1968. He attended the University of Illinois
in Chicago from which he received the degree of Bachelor of
Science in chemistry with honors in June, 1972, completing his
undergraduate work after he had matriculated in the College of
Medicine at the University of Illinois in September, 1971.
The first year of medical school (1971-72) was anything but a
success for all three of the plaintiffs. Each testified before
the College Committee that he was overwhelmed by the method of
instruction and volume of work. McDonald continued to work on a
non-medically oriented job. Marshall was divorced by his wife.
Sullivan, in addition to his medical school studies, completed
his undergraduate work in chemistry. In June, 1972 each failed
the freshman comprehensive examination — a four-session,
500-question, multiple-choice, computer-graded examination in all
essential respects similar to the one given in 1973, which is
here in issue: McDonald scored 29, Marshall 40, and Sullivan 39
on a scale of 100.
Plaintiffs were then granted the opportunity to repeat their
freshman year, which they did. They organized a study group
consisting of themselves and two other repeating students. The
latter dropped out shortly into the school year. McDonald,
Marshall and Sullivan persisted. They changed their study methods
from regular class attendance, which they had pursued during
1971-72, to review of their own notes previously taken, review of
the notes of other students, discussions based upon individually
assigned topics in which one of them was assigned the role of
discussion leader, consultations with faculty members when they
encountered particular difficulty, and attendance at a two-week
review session offered to first-year medical students ...