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In a related issue, Thurston said Friday that a separate and shorter investigation failed to substantiate most of the allegations made by former Valley student body President Richard Cowsill, who contended he received grades and class credits for courses he never or rarely attended.
“The investigation has revealed that in the main the allegations are unfounded,” Thurston told a news conference at the campus. “Specifically, for five of the seven classes (Cowsill named) there is no evidence to prove that the credits were not earned.”
Cowsill branded the findings “ludicrous” and vowed to protest to the Los Angeles Community College District board of trustees at its Jan. 21 meeting.
‘Where’s the Evidence?’
“They say there is no evidence to prove that the credits I was given were not earned, well what evidence is there that I earned them?” Cowsill asked. “I guess I should be happy that I have 15 units I didn’t earn.”
Cowsill, a 31-year-old non-singing member of the once popular Cowsills singing family, told the board of trustees last September that.
- During the spring semester of 1979, he received grades of A in an office administration class and a speech class that he never attended.
- In the summer of 1979, he received grades of A in a beginning yoga class and a law class he never attended.
- During the fall of 1979, he sporadically attended classes in history and Jewish studies for which he received grades of C though he claimed he wrote no papers and took no examinations.
- Last spring he received a grade of C for wallpapering a theater set but maintained that he worked only two weeks for a total of 20 to 30 hours in the theater arts class.
The accusations outraged many faculty members at the suburban, Van Nuys campus, which has 25,000 students.
Farrell Broslawsky, a history professor at Valley, became so enraged with Cowsill that late last year he confronted Cowsill in the student cafeteria. As students looked on, Broslawsky began yelling “pig!” and then the instructor dropped his cigarette into Cowsill’s freshly purchased cup of coffee.
“He told the entire cafeteria I was an undercover officer and was setting everyone up for a big bust,” Cowsill recalled. “He was trying to get me into a fight.”
Broslawsky responded: “I told him he was a liar and a fink and said ‘Swing at me so I can tear your head off. I stood there calling him names. I stood by the phone booth saying ‘Oink, oink, oink.’ It was rather childish and I felt bad afterwards. But I don’t regret it for a moment. I just wish he would have swung at me. I think I could have torn him up a little bit.”
Campus police separated the pair.
District Chancellor Leslie Koltai appointed retired administrator Ray Johnson to investigate Cowsill’s charges.
Given ‘A’ in Class
One area where Johnson focused his inquires was on a PE 225 class, a one-unit yoga course, in which Cowsill received credit in the summer of 1979. Cowsill received an A in the course, even though he actually attended cheerleading sessions, which normally is a two-unit class.
John said he had never, in all his years in education, seen students take one class and be allowed credit for another.
Classmates of Cowsill interviewed by The Times recalled that he stopped coming to cheerleading practice several weeks into the summer session.
Kenneth Patton, a former cheerleader, said that Cowsill often was late to the sessions and failed to attend a special, two-week camp held at summer’s end for yell teams from various schools. He said Cowsill did not deserve an A.
“He couldn’t do any of the lifts or jumps,” Patton said. “His rhythm was terrible. He could only lift the two lightest girls in the squad.”
Won’t Elaborate
Steve Kaplan, another cheerleader, said of Cowsill’s performance: “He tried but he just couldn’t grasp the movements.”
When asked by newsmen Friday how Cowsill could receive credit for yoga, a course that he did not take, Thurston replied: “This is a local matter that we will be pursuing.” She would not elaborate.
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