A professor at Marshall University has accused the executive dean of the university’s College of Education and Human Services of altering two grades for the daughter of West Virginia’s state treasurer, John D. Perdue, and is asking the Faculty Senate to investigate, according to the Charleston Daily Mail. The professor, Laura Wyant, said in letters to top university officials that the dean, Rosalyn Templeton, changed two grades Ms. Wyant had given the student in independent studies from incompletes to A’s without Ms. Wyant’s permission. The controversy comes less than two years after another public institution in the state, West Virginia University, was rocked by a scandal involving the awarding of an unearned degree to the governor’s daughter.
RSS
Follow The Ticker through your favorite RSS reader.
2 Responses to Marshall U. Faces Grading Scandal Involving Daughter of State Treasurer
qrypt - September 28, 2009 at 5:34 pm
But this is just how they do things in WV. Who is this uppity professor to complain about it? Mr. Perdue got his job fair and square and has every right to throw his weight around.
vfichera - September 29, 2009 at 9:21 am
Here’s how a rather widespread grade-changing practice by university administrations usually goes undetected by the faculty:Faculty generally submit their grades on a gradesheet, either in paper form or electronically. Each student’s actual semester/quarter grade list is separate from, even if usually “generated” from, the faculty grade sheet. Administrators simply change the grade on the student’s grade list and not on the faculty gradesheeet. Only if the faculty member is actually able to consult the student’s grade list does the faculty member become aware of the change in the “transfer.” (Of course, often the student involved “leaks” the change to someone and the faculty member does find out, but not always or even usually.)Thus, with Clintonesque “truespeak” (“It depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is”), administrators do not change the faculty member’s grade, “preserve” the faculty member’s right to “free expression” and change only the administration-controlled student grade list. “Academic freedom of the university” in action — sustained by some Federal courts.