Declining Doctoral Standards

So I just found out recently my university is granting a doctoral degree to someone who can't even draw an amino acid, one of the most basic building blocks of life.  It's a stark example of how committees can approve someone for graduation because their PI wants to get rid of them and graduating them is the easiest way to do so.  That was certainly what occurred here.  The student was in her ninth year, and had yet to publish a single paper.  I really wonder how she ever passed her qualifying exam.