CC Times calls scandal a "blemish on DVC"

We appreciated, in this article, the assertion by one of the directors of a national college registrars' association that cash-for-grades scandals are rare. Thank goodness for that! It's been a matter of mostly good humored discussion among our students and staff for weeks.

We're wondering, though, how to reconcile that "rare" nature of such scandals with board member Grilli's contention that this could happen "at any school." When Grilli says "It just happened to us," we are led to believe it was inevitable. But Jamillah Moore's statement that the distict needs to revamp its system suggests some problem the district and college need to own up to.

Reconciliation is difficult! How to make sense, together, of these two statements from our correspondent Matt Krupnick?

1) Campus employees said Scott-Summers has told them repeatedly not to talk about the scandal, saying that she is the only one from the school who should speak publicly about the issue.

2) Diane Scott-Summers, Diablo Valley's interim president, did not return repeated phone calls this week.

Wellllllll...she is the only one who SHOULD speak but she WON'T speak? who DOES speak for our college?

Here's what Matt Krupnick wrote in Wednesday's 3/7/07 _Times_:

Cash-for-grades scandal leaves blemish on DVC
By Matt Krupnick
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
With the investigation into an alleged cash-for-grades scheme at Diablo Valley College nearly complete, there are signs the scandal has tarnished the Pleasant Hill school's reputation.

College registrars nationwide have discussed what could be far-ranging implications of the grade changes, first revealed by the Times in January. Several registrars have said they would expel students or rescind any degrees given to Diablo Valley alumni who transferred to their schools.

"We might dismiss them completely, because they were admitted under false pretenses," said Bruce Purcell, the registrar at Cal State East Bay. The action would depend on the severity of each case, he said.

Contra Costa Community College District police said Monday that they planned to turn the case over to prosecutors within two or three weeks. The investigation began in February 2006.

Since January, the scandal has been a subject of discussion among California college administrators. The hallways of a national registrars' convention in Boston were abuzz with chatter about Diablo Valley College this past weekend, an attendee said.

Such scandals "happen so rarely that when it does happen, it sort of jumps out at you," said Barmak Nassirian, an associate director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers in Washington, D.C. "We're aware of it with great regret and a collective sense of embarrassment."

College-district leaders this week seemed not to share that embarrassment. Several said they did not believe Diablo Valley had suffered any lasting damage to its reputation because they acted quickly and fixed problems that had enabled student employees to accept money for the grade changes.

School administrators said they have limited access to academic records since the plot was uncovered, and none of the suspected employees works in the records office now. Police have declined to say how many students or grades were involved, although district Chief Charles Gibson said it was "a substantial number."

"We told the truth and made the changes," said district Chancellor Helen Benjamin. "That's all we can do -- be honest."

Diane Scott-Summers, Diablo Valley's interim president, did not return repeated phone calls this week. Campus employees said Scott-Summers has told them repeatedly not to talk about the scandal, saying that she is the only one from the school who should speak publicly about the issue.

When administrators were first tipped off to the scandal a year ago, the district was reeling from chronically declining enrollment, morale problems stemming from districtwide pay cuts and major financial uncertainty. In addition, college leaders were preparing to ask the public to vote on a $286.5 million bond measure in the June election.

District leaders have denied that election considerations led them to keep the grade changes quiet, saying they did not want to compromise the investigation.

The experience has been unfortunate, but not the end of the world, said board member Sheila Grilli.

"Any school is subject to this type of thing," she said. "It just happened to us, which is too bad."

But, she said, "I don't see it as much of a major problem as asking your employees to take a salary cut."

Some students have lamented the possible effects of the scandal as they try to transfer to four-year schools, and some former students have tried to distance themselves from the scheme. Alex Krasov, who transferred from Diablo Valley to San Francisco State University last year, said the grade changes were embarrassing, but not shocking.

"Things of this nature go on at almost every institution," she said. "It would be naive for anybody to think this stuff doesn't go on."

Education lobbyist Jamillah Moore said educators and leaders from several California colleges contacted her after she included news of the Diablo Valley investigation in her company's newsletter last month. Faculty members statewide are worried the scandal could lead to more time-consuming procedures to prevent unauthorized grade changes, she said.

The Contra Costa district must protect students by revamping its own procedures, said Moore, a former statewide community-college administrator.

"If a district shows, 'This is what we've done to fix it,' that helps students who come afterward," she said. "It's incumbent upon them to say, 'This is what we've done.'"