Compare and contrast, kiddies.

The Uptown paper of record telling us to move on versus a Richmond Time-Dispatch columnist seeking out experts in the ethics field — including one at UNCC UNC Charlotte — who says that Rodney Monroe should give the degree back. The argument:

Bruce A. Arrigo, co-author of Ethics, Crime and Criminal Justice, is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He said Monroe’s degree remains an issue there, in the Queen City, though one flown under the radar.

“I think it’ll continue if it’s dragged out in that sense,” Arrigo said. “The ball’s really in his court. He has to make a decision on how to proceed.”

Whether Monroe should return his degree depends on a number of factors, “the first of which is, what did he know? . . . His intentions are important.”

If Monroe was unaware of the graduation criteria or didn’t compromise it, “then it’s hard to make a case he should therefore be penalized . . . that’s beyond what I would say is fair and reasonable,” Arrigo said.

“I tell you what I think the honorable thing is. . . . I would think he would want to work something out where he completed the balance of those credit hours,” Arrigo said. “I would argue it’s a statement of what a person of integrity does.”

He called such a course of action “not only politically prudent, but ethically appropriate.” Monroe may not be responsible for the degree debacle, but people in leadership have to weigh larger issues, such as what’s best for VCU, Charlotte-Mecklenburg and the public, Arrigo said.

Say, Bruce. Are you sure you are from around here? That is not how we operate. Local leadership does not do what is best for the public. Local leadership does what is best for local leadership. And the issue has flown under the radar to the extent it has because the Uptown paper refuses to cover developments in Richmond and writes utterly inane editorials telling the local citizenry to stop talking about it.