Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center
Date: Saturday, 11 Apr 1992 13:40:54 EST
From: <ROWHC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.college
Subject: ZBT Registration Scandal at CUNY...

The following story broke in the mainmstream media last Monday. It was
carried by the New York Post, The New York Times, New York Newsday,
WINS (popular all-news AM radio), KISS-FM (popular disco station), as
well as the Hunter Envoy (CUNY's largest college newspaper).
--------------
(from Hunter Envoy, Vol. XLVII, No. 19 [April 7, 1992])
reprinted with contempt.

ZBT Frat Members In Grades Fix
by Donna Steffen
   Twelve Hunter Students. at least half of whom belong to the Zeta Beta Tau
(ZBT) fraternity, were suspended or expelled after college authorities
investigated charges that they had paid someone in the Registrar's office
to change their grades. Four Hunter alumni who had belonged to ZBT were also
found to have illegally altered their transcripts.
   It is not known wwwhen the four alumni graduated, but the administration
has apparently had their transcripts corrected, without taking any formal
action against them since the men no longer attend Hunter.
   At least five of the 12 students disciplined have been identified. They
include former ZBT officer Armen Bezjian, ZBT member Jonathen Lonstein, Glen
Rovener, Jesse Sprague and Joseph Caffnney. It is not known whether the others
belong to ZBT or what punishment each of the 12 specifically received. When
Envoy contacted members of ZBT about the illegal grade changes, they claimed
to know nothing about them.
   Gary Manilla, who had worked in the Registrar's office and allegedly was the
one who entered the changes in the computer, has been transferred to the office
of admissions. He was named by several students who were caught having their
transcripts illegally changed, but when asked to testify agaisnt him in
formal hearings, no one would come forward.
   The administration therefore has no tangible proof that Manilla was involved
in the scandal. Manilla was an assistant to Registrar worker Naomi Linton and
had access to the code needed to get into students' files.
   Yecchiel Rosenrauch, the Senior registrar, confirms that illegal grade
changes had taken place but would offer no further information. "Yes,
students illegally paid someone involved in this office to change their
grades but we have found out about them and the disciplinary committee has
dealt with them accordingly," he said.
   Rosenrauch also confirms that the number of people who can enact grade
changes has been reduced and that the actual procedure for changing grades
has been altered to prevent these illegalities from re-occurring in the
future, but would not go into details.
   Before the Registrar's office learned of the transcript alterations, it
 was possible for anyone knowing the code to access students' files using
any of the computers located around the campus which students use to look
up their grades.
   The grade changes took place around the Fall 1990 semester. The Student/
faculty Disciplinary Com-mittee [sic] held hearings last semester that have
resulted in one expulsion and several suspensions for the students caught
changing their grades.
   The disciplinary proceedings ended and results were mailed out to students
found guilty before the Spring 1992 semester began, which should render all
findings of the committee public information. The Disciplinary Committee is
composed of about 12 students and faculty members who are representatives of
the different governments and academic departments, respectively.
   Rumors have been circulating about the illegal grade changes in certain
groups on campus as early as the Spring 1991 semester, until someone finally
worte an annonymous letter to the college administration saying that it needed
to begin an investigation. Records were examined, and when suspicious grade
changes were identiified, college officials checked with professors to see if
they had authorized the changes.
   As stated in college regulations, students must inform the Registrar's
office within 60 days of receiving their transcripts if there are any mistakes
with their grades. The students disciplined were found guilty of failing to
report their incorrect grades.
--------------------
on a more sensationalist note, here is the New York Post's exclusive report
of Monday, April 6, 1992. Known locally as a "tabloid" in every sense of the
word, it was the Post who broke the story open. Only then did the Hunter
Envoy have the guts to cover it without fear of intimidation by the Zeebs.
(more on the inside scoop later)

Grades For Sale
by Ransdell Pierson
   Hunter College officials have booted 10 students in a grade-buying scandal,
many of them fraternity brothers who paid up to $200 a pop to have F's and D's
changed to A's and B's.
   But the school official who allegedly changed the grades for cash has not
been disciplined and remains on the job, Hunter executives have told The Post.
   Several students of the Upper East Side college, a division of the City
University of New York, have confessed that they paid a middleman who would
over the money to an employee in the registrar's office.
   The unidentified employee allegedly worked magic on each student's trans-
script - changing up to five or six grades at a time.
   The middleman, a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, was expelled late
last year after students identified him and he failed to appear for the
disiplinary hearings, The Post has learned.
   In addition, nine undergraduates have been suspended for six months to a
year, school officials confirmed last week.
   "I've never heard of anything like this happening at Hunter before," said
Registrar Jerry Roosenrauch. "The grade changes ran the gamut."
   "Some were from an F to an A, but other students were more humble," he
said, agreeing to go "from a D to a C."
   "The intermediary and the students knew each other," according to Hunter
Physics professor Alfred Bennick, chairman of a college disciplinary
committee that qquestioned the students last year.
   "All of them were mutual acquaintances," said Bennick, adding that "more
than half" were members of Zeta Beta Tau.
   "The intermediary was from the fraternity," Bennick confirmed. "That's one
way you get to know people."
   The fraternity, which has 5,000 members nationwide, was founded in 1898 as
the first national Greek letter society for Jewish college students.
It became nonsectarian in 1954.
   Several frat members live in Hunter's dormitory at 425 E. 25th St. One
refused to comment yesterday when reached by The Post.
   Dean of Students Dr. Sylvia Fishman, who has been in charge of unravelling
the scandal, said the culprits were found guilty last Winter by a disciplinary
committee made up of faculty members and students.
   The committee's verdict was kept secret.
   The suspected employee in the registrar's office is to be disciplined.
   "My issue is with the students - that's where my responsibility lies,"
Fishman said, adding that "the employee's staus is pending."
   She refused to say whether the employee is still in a position to tamper
with grades.
   Bennick described the scandal as "a very scary kind of thing. If allowed to
continue, it might have undermined the whole academic system."
   Fishman innsisted that the scam will not cast a cloud over the transcripts
of Hunter's 19,000 other undergraduate and graduate students.
   "With great assurance their records are reliable and accurate," said
Fishman.
------------------------------------------------
President of Hunter College Paul LeClerc, in an "open line" memo
[perioodically circulated thru the community - the only contact
Pres. LeClerc maintains with non-administrators] dated April 7, 1992,
officially acknowledged the scandal. The memo downplayed the affair.
"An internal investigation revealed that 13 students were involved,"
was the only relevant information.

   The real story here lies in the fact that many people in the college knew
of the scandal the minute it was discovered - well over a year ago.
Day and Evening Session Student Government, The Hunter Envoy, and the
science newspaper Spheric all openly discussed the grade-fixing
in their offices.
   Nobody wrote a story about it for several reasons. First, it was effectively
covered up by administration because of the embarrassment factor. Second,
college students are horribly apathetic these days, so nobody felt like getting
off their fat asses to find the truth. Finally, there is a factor of fear
regarding ZBT on campus. Simply put, they are a snotty gang of thugs who
intimidate students not knowing any better.
   Envoy staff member Frantz Barbier told me last week that Donna Steffen
didn't write the story sooner, for fear of reprisal from ZBT. Even I put off
writing the story, although I had other reasons besides intimidation. Some
good friends of mine are Zeebs from other campuses, and this story is
especially embarrassing to ZBT, who were plagued with a sstudent hazing death
several years ago in New Jersey.
   Some black students feel that Dean Fishman assisted in the cover-up because
she is also Jewish, "and peple tend to stick with their own." Fishman certainly
was covering up the story, for a close assoociate of mine sat on the disciplin-
ary committee. I knew the ZBT angle of the scandal before any other student
did. When I called Fishman for a comment, she falsely claimed that the hearings
were still in progress and therefore confidential.
   I am one of the few white students at Hunter with "a bigger posse" that ZBT,
so they couldn't physically intimidate me with large numbers of frat boys,
like this local chapter did to me several years ago before I became a BMOC
myself. Evening Session Government, with a reputation for "militant black
activism," and also known for physical intimidation, plans to move other clubs
into their large office. ZBT is one of the few clubs on campus with their
own room (room 111 Thomas Hunter Hall). "Kickkk 'em when they're down," said
ESG Pres. Mark DePalma
   Hopefully Zeta Beta Tau of Hunter, whose charter has hung in the balance for
several years now, will finally get yanked by the old men in Chicago. ZBT's
secret motto is "Our Massa." A campus like Hunter, which is 60% minorities,
does not need racketeering scandals plaguing our already tarnished reputation.
CUNY has been rocked in recent years by racist CCNY Prof. Michael Levin, the
ousting of CCNY Black Studies Chairman Leonard Jeffories, nine deaths at CCNY
during a rap/basketball event, four years of violent budget cut/tuition
increase protests, and a recent CUNY central crackdown on student rights.
   Hunter students will not after all this tolerate ZBT grad student David
Acensio's bid for President of Graduate Student Association. Many Hunter
student leaders realize that GSA, with an $80,000 annual budget, is rarely
watched, and will only serve as a funnel into ZBT's student club account
(which has been frozen by the College Association pending further
investigation). The source on the disciplinary committee claims that "over
$20,000 was earned through the registration scandal." That leaves about
90 students who got away with fake grades.
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Newsgroups: alt.folklore.college