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Professor to file grievance
Old Main at Marshall University
HUNTINGTON -- A Marshall University professor says she will take whatever steps are necessary to file a grievance in order to begin an investigation of why one student's grades were recently changed from incompletes to A's.
Professor Laura Wyant said she wants the Faculty Senate to investigate why the grades of Marshall student Emily Perdue, who is West Virginia Treasurer John Perdue's daughter, were changed after she gave the student incompletes last spring in two independent study courses.
Wyant said she already filed a letter which she thought would serve as a grievance, but she will take whatever action is required to file the complaint officially.
The Faculty Senate will not investigate the matter until Wyant has filed the grievance, according to Faculty Senate President Camilla Brammer.
"The procedure is, if she's unhappy with the ruling of the provost, which he investigated the entire matter, if she's unhappy with that, she can file a grievance," Brammer said. "Until she files a grievance, the Faculty Senate cannot do anything. We do not have the power to do it."
Brammer said Wyant must file the formal complaint with Provost Gayle Ormiston, who will then send it on to Brammer as the Faculty Senate chair, who will then charge the Faculty Personnel Committee with the matter of investigating. She said the whole process could be lengthy.
Ormiston said Friday that Emily Perdue's grades were changed after she completed the coursework over the summer under College of Education & Human Services Dean Rosalyn Templeton.
The questions about the grade change at Marshall come two years after West Virginia University became involved in a master's degree scandal involving Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter. Former WVU President Mike Garrison resigned and former Provost Gerald Lang gave up his administrative post after investigators found that Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch was wrongly awarded a retroactive degree.
Ormiston said Friday that Wyant mistakenly received two grade change requests forms that should have gone to Templeton after she was assigned as the instructor of record.
Wyant wrote a Sept. 11 letter to Marshall registrar Roberta Ferguson after receiving those forms, and told Ferguson she could not approve the grade changes because she had "not seen any work completed by Ms. Perdue for either course."
Her letter prompted Ormiston's review, which he completed Thursday. After Ormiston released his findings, Wyant sent an e-mail to Brammer, asking for an investigation.
Brammer said Wyant knew Templeton would be overseeing the independent study over the summer.
"That was agreed upon by the parties involved," she said.
She also said she didn't think there was anything unusual about the dean's involvement.
"I don't think that the dean did anything that was out of line for what she has the authority to do," Brammer said.
Wyant, who's been at Marshall for 18 years, said she's never heard of a dean overseeing independent study before.
She said the purpose of the independent study courses were to prepare students to be teachers, instructing them on how and what to teach.
Emily Perdue needed to pass the courses in business education management to gain admittance to Marshall's business school.
The Perdue family has a high profile in state government. Treasurer Perdue has been mentioned as a candidate for governor, and his wife, Robin Perdue, is the executive director of the West Virginia Public Employees Grievance Board.
When The Herald-Dispatch reported on a grievance filed by seven professors in March, a union representative said that 47 grievances had been filed on behalf of School of Education faculty between February 2008 to March 2009.
Templeton could not be reached for comment Friday or Saturday.
