Fired Professor Says Seminary Forcibly Raised Students' Grades

By Dan Berrett

A scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls who is fighting dismissal from a graduate school of theology is alleging that his former employer inflated some of his students' grades to retaliate against him.

The dispute pits Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, a former associate professor of the New Testament, against the Interdenominational Theological Center, a consortium of eight seminaries in Atlanta. The center awards master's and doctoral degrees in such fields as divinity, Christian education, church