Probe into ASU economics teacher’s claims finds no wrongdoing

PHOENIX – A former Arizona Supreme Court chief justice found no evidence supporting an Arizona State University faculty member’s claims of unethical behavior in the economics department.

Ruth V. McGregor was hired last month to conduct an independent investigation into accusations made by clinical assistant professor Brian Goegan, and the 14-page report on her findings was released Tuesday.

McGregor’s appointment came after Goegan set off a firestorm with an email to students criticizing two department policies.

He alleged that the school, in exchange for a monetary grant from Cengage, required students to pay the third-party education company in order to turn in homework for ECN 211 and 212 classes.

While McGregor did find that students incurred a required $100 class fee to access Cengage products, she didn’t find anything unethical about ASU’s relationship with the company.

“I found no evidence to support the allegation that ASU agreed to use Cengage products for developing and distributing the adaptive learning course for economics in exchange for a large grant from Cengage and no evidence that Cengage has proposed or made such a grant,” the report says.

Goegan also alleged the department had a quota to fail at least 30% of students in three courses. McGregor conducted interviews about the claim with six other economics professors.

“None had ever been told that they were required to fail 30% of the students in a class,” the report said.

“Several professors commented that requiring a 30% failure rate would be completely contrary to the emphasis in the department on retention and adaptive learning, which is designed to improve student performance.”

Goegan had been told in the fall of 2018 his teaching contract was not being renewed.

McGregor, who obtained her law degree from ASU in 1974, resigned from the Arizona Supreme Court in 2009.

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