<p>This is a nightmare I hope none of you Parents will have to
go through. My son is a few months away from a graduate
degree on full scholarship and paying TA stipend. He raised
the grades on 4 or 5 students at the end of last semester and
was caught. There was no money or sex involved, just peer
pressure and a horrible lack of judgement. He has to go to
the Provost’s office now where he will make a case (he has
already met his teacher/boss and two others yesterday. During
this next process he can have a lawyer present and I can be
there too. Of course the scholarship is now gone and the TA
job. We pray he may just get probation or suspension rather
than expulsion. It is moving fast though and we don’t know what
to do. He had everything and now faces nothing. What is going
to happen and what can we do?
Heartbroke Dad</p>
<p>Another parent of grad student here.
I don’t have any great wisdom to share for your situation. Just want to send some CC support along to you and your son. Our son did several years ago, use poor judgment that could have caused expulsion from a summer program. NOT the same magnitude as what your son is facing but I can understand a bit how you must feel. </p>
<p>Seems like your son will have one shot at addressing the issue with the school. Would a lawyer help or hurt? Would a lawyer cause the school to be more harsh?</p>
<p>Young men in particular (my own surely included) can make such rash decisions.
Your son did not even benefit from his action and yet faces hefty punishment.
Your son’s action was way over the line but I hope somehow he is able to negotiate completing his degree if not immediately then after a suspension. Good luck.</p>
<p>I definitely think that although he obviously did something very wrong and has to make clear that he acknowledges his extremely poor judgment, he should also try to emphasize that there was no corruption here; that he received no personal benefit. Was there anything going on in his life at the time that could possibly supply some kind of reason why his judgment was off, and why this shouldn’t be taken as an indication of what his character is usually like, or will be like if he pursues an academic career?</p>
<p>And I do believe that he needs at least to consult with a lawyer, even if a decision is made not to have the lawyer accompany him. But since a lawyer is permitted, I think serious consideration should be given to bringing one with him.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I can’t add any real advice except to second Donna’s suggestion that he consult a lawyer.</p>
<p>Mostly though, I want to say I’m sorry, because it’s hard when your child does something wrong and uses poor judgment. It happens/has happened in some way to many of us. Keep in mind that he probably feels awful right now and needs your love and support.</p>
<p>I’ll be thinking of you both.</p>
<p>How can peer pressure make a graduate student change an undergraduate student’s grade? Undergraduate and graduate student TA’s, to my knowledge, are not supposed to be buddies, so their should not be a peer like relationship involved. The TA is there to train to be a professor.</p>
<p>I don’t think that anyone here can tell you what is going to happen, and any sound advice is best received from an attorney, not a message board.</p>
<p>“He had everything and now faces nothing.”</p>
<p>My heart goes out to you because I know how painful it is to be a parent whose child has made a mistake that carries severe consequences. I suggest that you get counseling to help support you during this painful period.</p>
<p>Please realize, however, that your son didn’t have everything and doesn’t face nothing now. There are many people who have bounced back after making mistakes with major consequences. This includes people whose mistakes cost them more than their graduate school degrees. For instance, I know a woman who came from an educated, supportive family yet became a crack addict in college, and even was briefly put into a mental hospital due to a drug-induced psychosis.</p>
<p>She ended up graduating from college, becoming a minister, running a nonprofit and writing successful books and getting major community awards. Much of her success was due to how she responded to her youthful transgressions.</p>
<p>I suggest asking a lawyer for advice. It may not be to your son’s benefit, however, for the school to know he has a lawyer because it may just make the admistration more likely to impose severe consequences. I’m guessing that your S’s best opportunity for a light punishment would be to admit what he did an express remorse for his behavior.</p>
<p>One thing to consider: If your S hacked to change the grades or if he changed the grades given by other instructors, he could face legal consequences, so if all that he faces is being expelled, the university may be imposing a relatively light punishment.</p>
<p>Kids make stupid, impetuous choices. What’s hard is that they have to live with their mistakes for a very long time. I’m so sorry that you and your family are dealing with this hardship, but time heals a lot.</p>
<p>I would agree with Northstarmom that this is not the end of the road for your son. Will his path in life go the way he had planed, probably not; but the bend in the road is not a dead end. My son did something stupid at a teen which cause his schooling to take a different path; not the path he had wished for, but it has worked out for the better in the long run. He is now a much wiser person who now thinks before he leaps. A very wise psychiatrist once told me that a male child’s brain was not developed until he is at least 25, so while I might feel my son was an adult at 22, really he was still a child. It might be silly, but this helped me to understand when he would do or say something that I felt was childish. Not until he was in medical school and a couple of years older than most of his classmates did he really start to grow up. </p>
<p>Assuming you have the entire story from your son, he needs to have an attorney present after discussing the case with him.</p>
<p>Sending support and sympathy to you from my end, too. I have been through some very poor choices with one of my kids, and I completely understand your heartache. It hurts so much to see them risk so much…but they do it anyway! I hope the school will show your son some mercy. Please keep us posted.</p>
<p>“How can peer pressure make a graduate student change an undergraduate student’s grade?”</p>
<p>The grad student is probably reacting to something that the OTHER grad students have/haven’t done. Having been a grad student myself (back in the stone age) I can easily imagine a situation where the average grades for students in one TAs section(s) were lower than in the other sections, and the temptation for that TA to adjust grades for quizzes that in retrospect appear tougher than those written by the other TAs. I remember grading exams with the instructor and other TAs and occasionally going back over one question or another multiple times in order to figure out how to score them. Then we had to calculate the semester grade including any midterm and lab grades as well as the final. Borderline grades had to be finalized up or down. The whole thing was a nightmare. I could hardly wait to go into the lab and leave the grading behind for the rest of my degree program.</p>
<p>If you retain a lawyer, make sure he or she has experience in exactly this area. It’s pretty specialized and not just anyone can be of help.</p>
<p>Make sure no money was involved in the improved grades-- that would become a criminal issue-- get the lawyer and beg for mercy.</p>
<p>What degree program is he in? If it’s a master’s program, he can probably take a year off, matriculate at another school (perhaps a step down in quality), transfer some of the credits from his current school, and continue on the same path, just two years behind. I don’t mean to make it sound simpleit won’t bebut these things don’t have to be the end of someone’s aspirations. The key is to acknowledge wrongdoing and immediately set out to make it right.</p>
<p>That is, assuming he is indeed expelled. But maybe he won’t be. I wish him the best of luck.</p>
<p>"The grad student is probably reacting to something that the OTHER grad students have/haven’t done. Having been a grad student myself (back in the stone age) I can easily imagine a situation where the average grades for students in one TAs section(s) were lower than in the other sections, and the temptation for that TA to adjust grades for quizzes that in retrospect appear tougher than those written by the other TAs. "</p>
<p>I’ve also been a TA, and I’d be very surprised if the grad student might be expelled for something as benign as the above.</p>
<p>I don’t quite understand what happened. Was the grade changed after it was turned in to the head instructor or to the registrar? When a student’s grade needs to be changed, the TA discusses the grade and the reason for changing it with the instructor. Once the grade has been recorded in the registrar’s office, if there needs to be a change, it is the responsibility of the head instructor to change it. The TA does not play a part in it.
My S was CA and graded everything in the course; but his name never appeared in the paperwork. He sent the grades in to the prof, and the prof sent them on.</p>
<p>Are you saying he raised the grades HE gave some students, or that he went in and changed grades given by other instructors?</p>
<p>Surely an instructor has the right to react to a grade appeal or to change his mind about how graded a particular test or paper. I would think that he would be physically unable to change someone else’s grading. Isn’t it computerized? Aren’t there passwords and levels of access?</p>
<p>I just want to lend my support. I’m sure this frightening for you. As NSM already said so well, your son’s future is unwritten. It’s easy to get swept up in the “what ifs” and worst case senarios but you need to be a voice of reason for your son. You need to convey to him how much you love him and how you have total faith that he will handle this situation with honor and create a good life for himself.</p>
<p>I would try to convince my kid to use every resource available, including having a parent and lawyer present. </p>
<p>Best of luck to all of you.</p>
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<p>I’m confused by the same things, Consolation.</p>
<p>^ What puzzles me is the distinction between instructor and TA. TAs report grades to the instructor (who is the prof in charge of the course); the instructor fills out a grade sheet (or it is prepared by the TA or head TA), signs it and sends it on. If a grade needs to be changed (owing to some computation or clerical error), it is the instructor, not the TA, who requests the grade change.<br>
That is why I have been confused as to what exactly the TA in this story did.</p>
<p>Marite, it’s not like that everywhere. At many institutions, TA’s have computer access to grade books, and can go in and enter and change grades. I am not aware they have access to other TA’s or instructors grade books, but at many institutions of higher learning, they enter their own grades for things like lab sections that they are in charge of, recitation classes they hold. They enter quiz and exam grades in some classes for the prof’s. Their sign-on limits what they have access to, and hacking is quite difficult. But TA’s everywhere can and do enter grades in directly for the students they are responsible for. There are not many state flagship U’s especially who use grade sheet to “turn in.” They use Blackboard and other programs for entering in grades for just about everything.</p>