A Marshall University instructor changed a student’s grades from incompletes to letter grades while another instructor was listed as the Instructor of Record, which is a violation of university policy.
The student, Emily Perdue, is the daughter of West Virginia State Treasurer John Perdue, as confirmed by a spokesman for the state treasurer’s office. She received two incompletes in independent study courses in spring 2009 from professor Laura Wyant.
The courses were then supervised by Rosalyn Templeton, dean of the College of Education and Human Services. Templeton changed the incompletes to letter grades while Wyant was still listed as the only Instructor of Record.
According to the Office of the Registrar, the incompletes were officially changed to letter grades Sept. 3.
In an e-mail from Provost Gayle Ormiston to Registrar Roberta Ferguson dated Sept. 29, Ormiston wrote, “I am requesting the addition of Dean Templeton as the primary instructor in the section file for these two sections.”
According to instructor and enrollment data from the College of Education and Human Services, Templeton was added as an Instructor of Record the day Ormiston requested it.
Templeton would not comment on the matter and referred inquiries to Ormiston.
The Greenbook, Marshall’s faculty handbook, states: “For any course primarily consisting of … independent study … the ‘Instructor of Record’ shall be the faculty member supervising the work the student does in the course.”
When the classes began, Wyant was listed as the Instructor of Record for both Office Management and Developing Selling Curriculum independent study courses, according to the Office of the Registrar.
Ormiston declined to speak about the matter to The Parthenon but sat in on one of three interviews with Chief of Staff Bill Bissett, which occurred in Ormiston’s office.
Although Bissett said it was a mutual decision between Wyant and Templeton that Templeton would instruct the student over the summer, Wyant disagreed.
Bissett did not reveal the student’s name.
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.
Wyant did not identify the student as Emily Perdue or her father as John Perdue in her exclusive interview with The Parthenon.
During that meeting, Templeton, the student and the student’s father 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.
In June, Wyant and her secretary attempted to make a new section for the independent study courses and list Templeton as the Instructor of Record for the section and to have Perdue drop Wyant’s sections and add Templeton’s section.
When Wyant brought the paperwork to Templeton, she began signing the A and B forms but then decided she did not want to change instructors. She did not sign the add/drop forms, and the matter was dismissed, Wyant said.
University administrators are labeling this as “a simple clerical error.”
According to the Office of the Registrar, Wyant was still the Instructor of Record when Templeton changed the grades.
“Because other students were in that course, it wouldn’t have been historically accurate to go in and change because Templeton did not award the grades for the other students in the course,” Ferguson said.
Bissett said Wyant and Templeton agreed late in the spring semester to be co-instructors.
“Co-instructor” is not an official term in the Office of the Registrar, Ferguson said. “We did add her name with a percentage of responsibility that would indicate that she didn’t award all the grades in the class.”
Ferguson said Wyant’s secretary informed the registrar June 11 that Templeton would be in charge of the resolution of the student’s incompletes.
“As is clearly documented with a number of correspondences, Dr. Wyant turned the instruction for the resolution of the incomplete over to Dean Templeton,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson said cases like these are not unusual. Frequently an instructor other than the Instructor of Record assigns a grade for an incomplete.
In the original grade change forms, Templeton did not fill out the section “reason for making grade change” when she sent them to the registrar, Bissett said.
“When it was sent to the registrar’s office, and that was missing, that one element, based on what was on file, they sent it to Dr. Wyant,” Bissett said. “Dr. Wyant received it. She then forwarded it back to the registrar saying, ‘It was my understanding that we were co-instructors.’”
Ferguson said the grade change forms were sent to Wyant because she was listed as the Instructor of Record in the database.
“The grade change specialist was not aware that Dean Templeton was going to complete the instruction, so she followed procedure and returned them to the instructor for her verification,” Ferguson said.
In reference to the grade being changed before the Instructor of Record was changed, Bissett said, logically, it could not have worked that way.
“Based on protocol, there’d be no way it could go in any other order cause you would have to have that form completed to go from incomplete to a grade,” Bissett said. “So once that form missteps, the instructors would have to be corrected and then the grade assigned.”
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