Mirror - Vol. 34, No. 03 - September 18, 2008

              WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 18,2008
Vol. 34, Iss. 3-24 pages
FREE - Take one MIRROR WWW.FAIRFIELDMIRROR.COM
Tne independent student newspaper
of Fairfield University
Fairfield fraud:
Student changes six grades by
hacking into professors'
accounts, allowed to
graduate via online courses
BY KEITH CONNORS
.A stressful night of studying turns into
an emotional breakdown. Weeks worth of as-signments
and term papers pile endlessly on
a desk. Solitude and anxiety slowly degener-ate
into desperation, despair, and, in the case
of a student yet to be named, crime.
A former Fairfield employee and
full-time undergraduate biology major
tampered with StagWeb's BANNER grad-ing
system to adjust his final grades shortly
before graduation.
The identity and name of the student,
though, has yet to be released by Public
Safety or the University's academic office.
According to a report released by
academic Vice President Orin Grossman,
the student abused his privileges as an
:•••+ : employee of the Univer-
I 1NSIDE: : sity by obtaining StagWeb
: EDITORIAL ; identification numbers of
I y.'J. I six of his professors. He
: • • t"'""'"''.''": then reset the passwords of
: * • each of his professors indi-
I HowTO ; vidually, using StagWeb's
: HACK : default privacy settings.
; STAGWEB" j "When faculty mem-
&.7 : bers enter grades in Stag-
Web, there is a window of
time before those grades are rolled into
BANNER by the Registrar' office," said
Grossman in a memorandum to all faculty
members.
"The student gained access during that
window of time and changed six grades,"
he said.
Ilustration by Peter Caty
Cheating your way to the top: A Fairfield student is being allowed to graduate with a general degree after changing grades
on six of his courses last year. He received a withdrawn for the courses, but is completing his degree via University College.
The stu-dent's
rouse
became ap-parent
to a
professor
shortly be-fore
gradu-ation,
who
subsequently
filed a report
with the Uni-versity.
"A col-league
ofmine
discovered
that there had
been a grade
change," said
a professor
who request-ed
anonymity. "She went back on a sub-sequent
day to enter other [undergraduate]
grades and discovered that the grade had
been changed."
A tampering charge was then filed via
Public Safety, an immediate investigation
among university offices began, and the
student's degree was eventually withheld.
The incident, though,- was far from
isolated. While four of the grades changed
involved the student's courses in the spring
semester of 2008, two professors discov-ered
inconsistencies with his final grades
from the previous fall semester.
Additionally, access to a faculty mem-ber's
StagWeb account pertains to far more
than just student grades.
The student potentially had access to
"faculty social security numbers, bank ac-count
information, retirement portfolios, [and]
student degree evaluations of the professor's
former students and advisees" through the
faculty version of StagWeb, according to a
professor involved in the incident.
"Information, such as the social secu-rity
numbers of all professors, should not
be available," the professor added.
Grossman confirmed that "in princi-pal"
access to the information was poten-tially
available.
However, he added that a review of
computer access logs by Computer and
Networking Services maintained that the
student had only adjusted grades and did
not tamper with other information.
Several other discrepancies, though,
exist in the story.
Richard DeWitt, a professor in the
philosophy department, was particularly
surprised that Grossman's memo men-tioned
a cross-functional investigation
involving "a broad consultation within
the university."
"The [Grossman] memo mentioned
that there was broad consultation," said
DeWitt. "But there was no consultation
with the faculty involved."
Grossman, though, maintained that
incidents of academic dishonesty extend
SEE "FACULTY" ON P. 5
Fairfield downgraded in college rankings
mQMr
Photo Illustration by Andoni Flores
The Bobcats catch the Stags: Fairfield was recently
surpassed by Quinnipiac, another Connecticut school in
Barron's Guide of the Most Competitive Schools. Fairfield
fell to "very competitive" from the "highly competitive" cat-egory.
Quinnipiac is in the "highly competitive" category.
Many students and alumni are upset with the perceived
declining value of a Fairfield education. However, Fairfield
says that its admission's process values more than just
SAT scores, which rankings value.
BY JOE CARRETTA
After four years and somewhere
upwards of $200,000, students will
leave here with a single piece of paper
granting them the title of Fairfield
alumni.
Unfortunately, for future and past
graduates, the fact that a student made it
through Fairfield may look less impres-sive
to prospective employers outside of
the collegiate circle.
According to Barron's Guide of the
Most Competitive Schools, Fairfield
has fallen from "highly competitive"
to "very competitive" in this past year's
edition.
The average SAT score of students
Fairfield has admitted peaked with the
class of 2008 at 1,200, and has now
dipped to 1,170 for the class of 2011.
Academic Vice President Orin
Grossman said the school usually fluctu-ates
in rankings, but didn't think it would
affect any students currently entering, or
already in the job market.
"I would prefer that we be highly
competitive rather than very competi-tive,
and I hope we will be there next
printing" he said. "However, we build
our reputation student by student, in the
quality of the education we provide, that
is really how a reputation is built over
many, many years."
Director ofAdmissions Karen Pel-legrino
said the numbers of applicants
have increased, and that the school has
enrolled a class that "meets or exceeds
the desired class size."
She also alluded to Fairfield's in-creasingly
diverse student population,
and the University's "holistic" admis-sions
process, which is not reflected by
narrow SAT-based college rankings.
"We look at every aspect of a stu-dent's
application, including the special
talents and abilities they will bring to
the university community," she said.
"Unfortunately, most of the rankings use
a fairly narrow measure of a student's
profile, and information like an increase
in the diversity of the university com-munity
will not necessarily be part of
the objective rating."
The news of the drop in rankings
has caused some unrest in Fairfield
alumni, who are disappointed to know
that the name of their diploma might be
beginning to lose some of its luster.
Thomas Catino '08, called the drop
"outrageous" and noted that Barron's
is a respected publication and widely
read by many high schools students and
guidance counselors involved in the ap-plication
process.
"This will be a big time hit to the
perception ofthe institution's reputation,
and I am sure that I and other alumni
will be disappointed to hear Fairfield has
become less selective," said Catino.
Other recent graduates feel as
though despite being settled into the job
market, they might be hurt in when look-ing
change companies if their degree is
losing some of its value.
Mike Colford '07 was able to
receive a job after school, but said he
hopes the downward trend of selectively
does not continue for the sake of his
professional career.
"When I left the school, I felt that
the Fairfield education was impressive
to put on my resume," said Colford. "I
would hate to see the school lose it's per-ception
of a competitive institution."
Despite Fairfield's increasing ef-fort
to beautify its image, the fall in
Barron's rankings has unsettled alumni
SEE "STUDENTS" ON P. 4