Four high-ranking administrators at Virginia Commonwealth University -- including political pundit Robert D. Holsworth and the director of the internationally acclaimed French Film Festival -- have resigned their leadership positions.

The university confirmed the resignations yesterday amid signs of increasing turmoil within VCU's leadership and complaints about its handling of the investigation into the awarding of a bachelor's degree to Richmond's former police chief.

VCU spokeswoman Pam Lepley said she could not comment on whether any of the resignations were related to the investigation. But Holsworth said he resigned last week as dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences because of the way the university conducted the probe.

"The resignation was out of frustration with the whole affair and how it was handled," he said yesterday.

Holsworth and two of the other administrators will remain on the university's faculty, while a fourth, S. Jon Steingass, has left VCU for a job in another institution outside of Virginia. Steingass had served as dean of the University College, which had awarded a bachelor's degree to Rodney D. Monroe, who now is police chief in Charlotte, N.C.

The investigation concluded that the decision to grant the bachelor's of interdisciplinary studies degree to Monroe violated VCU's requirement that a student complete at least a quarter of the course work at the university. The board decided to allow Monroe to keep the degree because he had done nothing wrong.

University officials said July 11 that appropriate disciplinary action had been taken but gave no details. VCU did not link any of the resignations announced yesterday to disciplinary action.

One of the most visible losses for the university had nothing to do with the Monroe investigation. Peter S. Kirkpatrick stepped down as executive director of the Office of International Education and as co-director of the renowned VCU French Film Festival.

Kirkpatrick, who is credited with helping to internationalize the university, will remain an associate professor of French.

He and his wife, Francoise Ravaux-Kirkpatrick, founded the film festival 16 years ago. He could not be reached for comment yesterday on the reasons for his departure.

Rob Tregenza, director of VCU's cinema program, said the fate of the French film festival is under discussion and "I'm hoping it will be resolved positively."

VCU said in a statement that it is committed to continuing the festival, which is held at the Byrd Theatre in Richmond.

The university also confirmed yesterday that Michael D. Pratt, another vocal critic of the investigation into Monroe's degree, had resigned as interim director of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs and as director of the VCU Center for Public Policy. He will remain as a professor of economics.

Pratt said yesterday he had resigned for personal reasons. He would not discuss the letter that he wrote with Deborah M. Brock, associate director of operations at the Wilder School, to the university's president, provost and faculty senate president earlier this year.

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, they denounced the investigation as threatening and unethical, and they called for a new investigation "by an organization outside of VCU that can be trusted by the faculty, staff, and administration."

Pratt and Dan Ream, the faculty senate president, referred questions to provost Stephen Gottfredson, who did not return phone calls yesterday.

The investigation was conducted by the VCU Department of Assurance Services at the direction of the Board of Visitors' Academic and Health Affairs Policy Committee.

Holsworth, in a three-page letter to internal auditor Richard O. Bunce on June 25, challenged the investigation's tactics and its objectivity. Holsworth's letter also was obtained by The Times-Dispatch.

He said investigators had told one faculty member, Public Safety Institute Director Robyn Lacks, that her chances of receiving job tenure this year would depend on her cooperation with the board's investigation.

"In my 30 years as a faculty member and administrator, I have never heard of an individual investigator from an audit department becoming involved in a discussion about an upcoming tenure case in what was clearly perceived as an implied threat," Holsworth wrote.

He also accused investigators of assuming that he and other VCU officials had engaged in a conspiracy, as alleged by an anonymous source within the university, because Holsworth and others generally supported helping Monroe earn his bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies.

"As far as I can tell, at no point did anyone try to cover up anything that had occurred," Holsworth wrote, citing a detailed story in The Times-Dispatch about the work Monroe had done to receive the degree.

Holsworth stood by his letter yesterday.

"I am certainly proud to stand up for . . . good people who were doing a good job for the university and who were treated unfairly in the investigation," he said.

Contact Karin Kapsidelis at (804) 649-6119 or kkapsidelis@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.