FBI questions motive behind grade changes

The FBI has contacted a Marshall University professor and expressed concern that she was asked to falsify grades for the daughter of an elected state official.  

The FBI called and asked for a meeting with professor Laura Wyant, the Instructor of Record for the courses in question, Wyant told The Parthenon in an exclusive interview.

Wyant did not reveal the name of the student.

The prominent student has been identified by a spokesman for the state treasurer's office as Emily Perdue, daughter of West Virginia State Treasurer John Perdue.

In an e-mail dated May 5, Rosalyn Templeton, dean of the College of Education and Human Services, told Wyant to "give (the student) an ‘I' for both courses, and I will do grade changes after she has earned them."

Templeton declined to speak to The Parthenon and referred all inquiries to Provost Gayle Ormiston.

In August, Wyant received two grade change forms asking for her signature to change the incompletes to grades.  This is confirmed by Marshall Registrar Roberta Ferguson, Chief of Staff Bill Bissett and Wyant.

"I had been advised by my lawyer that if I signed those grade change forms, having not been the professor that worked with that student, then that would be falsifying records, and that's a felony," Wyant said.

When asked if that would be falsifying records, Bissett said, "That's not what happened."

After consulting her lawyer, Wyant met with two FBI agents for three hours, she said.

A spokesman for the FBI said he could neither confirm nor deny that they are working on an investigation.

Wyant said she hired a lawyer in May when Templeton decided she would be the student's instructor.

The second part of the FBI's investigation is whether John Perdue violated the state ethics law, Wyant said.

The West Virginia Ethics Act states, "Those in public service should use their positions for the public benefit and not for their own private gain or the private gain of another."

Wyant said a meeting occurred May 1 with the student; her father; Templeton; Darlene Daneker, college of education associate dean for student services; Stan Maynard, college of education associate dean for academic programs; and herself.

During that meeting, the student asked whether she could discuss the matter privately with her father and Templeton.  The three went into Templeton's office and had a "submeeting," Wyant said.  Only Templeton returned and said she would be supervising the student's work over the summer for the incompletes.

Wyant said the meeting was not a formality for incomplete grades.  She did not object, but it was not mutually decided.

Since her meeting with the FBI agents, they have called numerous times for more information, Wyant said.

"I am not under investigation, nor is anything that I have done under investigation," Wyant said.

Templeton became dean of the College of Education and Human Services on July 1, 2005.  Since that time, 47 grievances have been filed against her by 18 of the college's faculty members, only one of which was Wyant, according to records provided by Ormiston.

Wyant said she has been at the university since 1974, and Bissett confirmed that she has never had a grievance filed against her.


Staci Standiford can be contacted at standiford1@marshall.edu.