Shanelle Walker is not your typical college student. She was elected student body president at Kentucky State University during the spring semester and performs a style of poetry that would make Russell Simmons do a double take. She has a broad voice, too, when it comes to pointing out injustice, and some might consider her a troublemaker.

Shortly after Shanelle was elected president of the Student Government Association, she found herself at the center of a controversy. She took a strong stand against the heads of Student Affairs and Residence Life, noting the fact that Kentucky State students are asked to stay in hotels for weeks at a time because the university does not have their dorm rooms ready. She claims that her comments got her into hot water with the administration, which tried to prevent her from voting on the Board of Regents -- a power granted to every student body president.

This is also when funny things started to happen to her transcript. After being awarded a retroactive withdrawal by the Academic Appeals Committee, Shanelle says the decision was challenged by the Office of Student Affairs. According to Shanelle, this is the first time she knows of Student Affairs intervening in a decision about a student's grades. She was asked for additional verification to prove that she should have been allowed to miss classes, with much of this correspondence coming to her while she was out of town. Shanelle produced a doctor's note to justify her request for withdrawal. It turns out that the doctor's note she provided was false.

After being caught in the act, Shanelle was suspended by the university and removed as student body president. She says that her grades were then changed from "withdrawn" to "failed." But Shanelle argues that other Kentucky State students have committed far worse violations involving drugs and robbery and aren't typically given such a harsh punishment. One example she gives in the interview below is that of a group of athletes who were arrested for first-degree robbery (which was reduced to theft). The athletes were given a $100 fine and campus community service. She also has two supporters who claim that they were charged with fighting on campus and drug possession. Neither of these individuals received a sentence as harsh as Shanelle's.

One powerful target of Shanelle's outrage has been Hinfred McDuffie, vice president for administration, external relations and development. Shanelle has challenged McDuffie for being incompetent, calling for his removal as the person in charge of student dormitories. She claims that students are consistently required to live in local hotels in what she perceives to be dangerous neighborhoods. She has also made the attacks personal, referring to the fact that McDuffie has been in the local newspaper after being arrested for drunken driving on more than one occasion.

"The hotels they have us in are nasty and second rate," says Shanelle. "I don't care what it takes, I think this needs to be fixed, and this man does not need to be in charge."

According to one Kentucky State alumnus who has been following the case, "This is a travesty of justice for the student." There are other concerns about what some see to be a pattern of potential abuses of authority by Kentucky State's administration, including the firing of football coach Fred Farrier, who was allegedly dismissed without any explanation. Shanelle also claims that she was not given appropriate notification of hearings that were taking place to decide her academic future.

Shanelle says decisions by the Academic Appeals committee are almost never reversed, that Student Affairs has never intervened in a case and that her repeated requests for meetings were ignored by the administration. She has filed a gender discrimination complaint with the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. The commission has taken on Shanelle's case and is going to investigate, given that the previous student body president (who was male) allegedly applied for a similar retroactive withdrawal and received a favorable response from the university.

Delores Jones of Your Black World reached out to Kentucky State President Dr. Mary Evans Sias for comment but received no response. She also did not get a reply from the university's public relations representative. To hear the interview between Delores Jones and Shanelle Walker, please click the image below.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a finance professor at Syracuse University. He makes regular appearances in national media, including CNN, NBC and CBS. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.