The Times West Virginian

Local News

February 3, 2009

288 WVU degrees being questioned

After audit by AACRAO

By Katie Wilson

FAIRMONT — In the last 10 years, West Virginia University has awarded 288 degrees to students who may not have completed the necessary hours, a report released Monday said.

Last fall, officials at WVU asked the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) to conduct an audit of the university’s records practices.

During the review and audit practices, internal review committees released to AACRAO that about 288 degrees awarded in the last 10 years were given to students who may or may not have completed the necessary credit hours.

Between May 1997 and August 2008, 27 executive MBA students were awarded degrees even though they didn’t appear to have met the requirements to receive them. In that same time period, 261 undergraduate degrees were awarded to students across the university even though they didn’t meet the requirements.

According to the university, 36,661 students graduated from WVU in that same time period.

On Monday, interim President C. Peter Magrath said those degrees would stand.

“The report does not say they were improperly awarded, but that the record keeping was not in keeping with best practices,” he said, meaning some students may actually have the hours they need, but the hours were not properly recorded.

That will soon be a thing of the past, Magrath said.

“The issue is absolute precision, accuracy and quality assurance,” he said.

AACRAO made 29 recommendations, which Magrath said would be implemented immediately. They include the creation of an Office of the Registrar, which would be in charge of keeping and maintaining all student records in perpetuity. That office would also be in charge of a centralized system of transcripts and student records to be certain no issues arise in the future.

Magrath said a national search is under way for a registrar.

The AACRAO team worked with WVU officials throughout the fall. The scope of the project included: Reviewing the records management policies for the entire university, how those records are maintained over time, and the way grades and transcripts are tracked. They were also responsible for conducting a review of academic records and degree-granting practices in the College of Business and Economics.

“Our purpose was to consult, not to investigate,” said Wayne Sigler, AACRAO senior consultant and project director. “We didn’t assign guilt or blame. We identified areas of weakness then made best-practices solutions.”

In a 28-page report, AACRAO lists a number of observations of things that weren’t “best practices.” Those included inadequate use of technology to track grades and no accountability among the university’s different colleges regarding grades and records.

Sigler said the university’s Banner system, a computer system that covers everything from class registration to transcripts, isn’t being used effectively. The Banner system was implemented in May 1997.

Sigler said the AACRAO team was met with frankness and honesty by WVU faculty and staff who were willing to do whatever necessary to find the problems.

“We believe these are well-intentioned people who are careful in their work,” Sigler said. “We’re seeing fine, dedicated, honorable folks working with a flawed system.”

Magrath noted WVU has experienced tremendous growth in the last 10 years, but some systems just weren’t sufficient to keep pace. Those issues would be corrected and WVU will move forward to become a model for other institutions, he said.

The audit came in the months following the Heather Bresch degree scandal, where an executive MBA (eMBA) degree was awarded to Bresch, daughter of Gov. Joe Manchin. Bresch reportedly didn’t have the credits necessary to complete the degree. The fallout from that scandal caused then-President Mike Garrison and several other officials, such as former Provost Gerry Lang, to resign.

Bresch’s degree wasn’t officially awarded and was rescinded last year, Magrath said.

AACRAO will continue working with WVU through the spring to audit the 261 questionable degrees.

E-mail Katie Wilson at kwilson@timeswv.com.

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