Grade-changing scandal rocks SU: degrees may be revoked

University Business, May, 2004

Internal auditors at Southern University (LA) have uncovered a grade-changing scheme involving hundreds of students that may have resulted in fake degrees being awarded. Chancellor Edward Jackson said the cash-for-grades scheme involved undergraduate and graduate students dating back to 1995. Jackson said students might have paid several hundred dollars each to get grades changed.

Suspicions arose last year after a student enrolled in the school's graduate program presented credentials that indicated she had graduated from the university. The registrar's department had no record of her having earned a degree.

An investigation uncovered numerous grade changes involving some 2,500 transactions, dating back to 1995. The search also revealed employee codes that implicated university staffers in the scheme. One assistant registrar was fired at the start of the investigation in March 2003, another employee has since been reassigned and remains under investigation.

Jackson said former students suspected of involvement in the scheme will have the chance to defend themselves before a panel of faculty and administrators. So far, 541 former SU students have been contacted to appear before the panel. The panel can clear the students or require them to retake the courses in question. It is likely that many of the degrees will be revoked, the chancellor said at a press conference.

"We will try to be as fair and humane as possible if students who are involved are willing to cooperate," Jackson said. "But we have to remember that laws have been broken and rules have been violated." The auditors' report has been turned over to East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Doug Moreau, who has said criminal charges may be filed. Glinda Rutledge, a verification officer in the Registrar's Office, said that since the scandal broke she has been deluged with calls for verification of degrees.