“We gave it the old college try, and sometimes you take it on the chin,” said Meg Kane, a lawyer for the graduates of the UMD College of Education and Human Service Professions. “They were found negligent, they were found liable — responsible — it just wasn’t a lot of finances awarded.”

The former students, who graduated from UMD in December 2014, also alleged fraud and misrepresentation by UMD after they failed to receive standard teaching licenses because the school’s integrated elementary and special education (IESE) program was not in compliance with the state Board of Teaching at the time.

UMD officials reported that an internal investigation was done, and have publicly accepted responsibility, saying students should have been alerted sooner. But the university has never fully explained the lapse, calling it a human resources issue.

The alumni sued in October 2015, seeking more than $1 million in damages related to lost wages, benefits, out-of-pocket expenses and reputation issues. Kane said a decision on appealing the lost claims will have to wait past the weekend at least.

“It’s devastating to work this hard, get this far, and you didn’t get your point across,” she said.

The university was thus able to claim a partial victory after the jury delivered its verdict in State District Court in Hennepin County.

“We view the jury’s verdict as recognizing that while this matter was unfortunate, UMD quickly worked to remedy the situation,” the university’s general counsel, Doug Peterson, said in a statement Friday night.

UMD’s teacher licensure programs have been back in good standing with the Board of Teaching for more than a year. Most of them had been suspended for review after the IESE issue led to the discovery of other documentation errors.

UMD has said it has created an accreditation office within the college to prevent future lapses.

The College of Education and Human Service Professions remains accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, with the next site visit scheduled this fall

“We recognize the dedication of UMD to its education students,” Peterson said. “This case reaffirms the importance of the University’s programs placing students in classrooms throughout the state, particularly those serving in a special education capacity.”

The accreditation trouble stems from changes made by the state teaching board in 2013 to education requirements that affected UMD’s unique dual-licensure IESE program. The UMD education department didn’t document its updates, which resulted in the state “disapproving” the program.

UMD was notified of the lapse in the fall of 2014, it has said. The university then failed to submit paperwork that would get the program back on track in time for a January meeting of the teaching board, resulting in a months-long review process to regain state approval. That left two dozen December graduates unable to obtain standard licenses. The affected students were given the opportunity to obtain temporary licenses if they had a job offer, which made it hard for some graduates to obtain jobs.