diablo valley college admissions and records

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“The only product a college produces is a transcript with grades on it,” Fincher said, speaking publicly for the first time since the scheme was discovered. Nearly 400 grades are believed to have been falsified, including some that were changed more than once. Registrars have reason to be suspicious about all DVC grades before January 2006, when the plot was uncovered, Fincher said. Several other current and former students suspected of being involved in the scheme did not return repeated phone and e-mail messages. The first student, a 30-year-old Concord resident, could not be reached for comment. Other college leaders have said they know nothing about the sex allegations.

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A student employee in the records office quickly learned that access to the computer system could become lucrative, Fincher said.Īs time went on, that student taught others how to run the scam, collecting hundreds of dollars per grade change.įincher said one student employee told him and other administrators that sexual favors sometimes were exchanged in lieu of cash. The scam allegedly started soon after the college district installed a management system designed by the firm Datatel in 1999, said Gary Fincher, DVC’s admissions and records director, who once worked for the company. The college first suspected 84 students, but now say they have cleared at least 20 from the original list. The college had previously said the grade changes went back only to 2003.ĭozens of students, including several who transferred to four-year colleges and universities, are suspected of paying up to $600 to records-office employees for each improved grade. The new information about the timing, provided to the Contra Costa Times by a county prosecutor and the school’s admissions and records director, conflicts with previous statements from college police and leaders. Employees must deliberately choose to view the numbers, but are logged every time they do so, Rhoda said.The Diablo Valley College cash-for-grades scheme might have also involved sex and began at least three years earlier than administrators had disclosed, raising suspicions about college transcripts dating back as early as 2000. Social Security numbers are by default not displayed when records are shown.

#Diablo valley college admissions and records software

Thomas College uses Web-based administration software that it built in-house and which is set to ensure the privacy of student records in other ways. Any changes require the registrar to be present, he said. While professors can directly enter grades into the database after logging into the network, they must submit paper copies for verification. 'Employees are your biggest security problem,' he said. At the 650-student private college in Waterville, Maine, only one employee - the registrar - has the ability to change grades after they have been first entered. The district's technology head says that as a result of the scam, the number of employees authorized to change grades has been cut to 11.Įven that number may be too high for Chris Rhoda, vice president for information services at Thomas College.

#Diablo valley college admissions and records code

'This is not a situation involving weak code or loopholes in our software.' 'Nobody gains access to any part of our system without permission to do so,' he said. Colleague's security features are not in question, he said. That includes Diablo Valley and its parent organization, the Contra Costa Community College District, who Abzug said continues to be a 'happy' and 'loyal' customer.Ībzug said the company had not been contacted by the district or the local prosecutor's office about its software. or one of its acquired firms, PeopleSoft.Ĭolleague is used by 740 colleges in North America, according to Abzug. 'DataTel is not the issue.'ĭatatel's Colleague competes most directly with software from Sungard and Jenzabar Inc., with many large universities opting for software from Oracle Corp. 'We have not been told of any security problems with the software,' said Peter Abzug, Datatel's director of corporate communications. A Datatel spokesman said Tuesday's news reports were the first the company had heard about the scam.