The Registrar’s Office has done some impressive sleuth work to nab the student who changed as many as five students’ grades. While the motive of the student is unknown at this point, there is obviously never a reasonable excuse to change grades. Thankfully, the registrar knows that less than five students were affected by the grade-changer, who was immediately fired.

Procedures for preventing academic crimes at the registrar’s office seem adequate despite the mishap. University Registrar Dennis Geyer reports only three errors in entering grades out of 25,000 posts since June. Clearly this is an isolated incident within an office already safeguarding student records. Only five people in the office have the ability, through usernames and passwords, to post grades. Although the breach appeared to occur when an authorized user forgot to log off, this is just bad luck coupled with a student looking to take advantage of holes in the system. Even after the fact, Geyer said random audits of grades are also conducted, which is reassuring for students.

What remains unknown about this incident is the motive of the perpetrator and what the ultimate punishment will be. Whatever information the University Police investigation yields should be used to learn about future preventive action the registrar’s office can implement. Perhaps shorter automatic logoff times could close the vulnerability gap. And frequent audits at scheduled times could add more assurance that the system has not been compromised.

The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville took more drastic action when six grade-changers ended up in jail. The university’s registrar’s office banned student employees completely. This would certainly be a drastic move for GW to take considering the isolated incident. There should be larger reasons for limiting student employment on campus.

This case exposes the best way to guard against unauthorized grade-changing: students and teachers checking their records. With 25,000 transactions a year, the Registrar’s Office will surely slip up from time to time, whether on purpose or by accident. The office has shown it will act when it knows a mistake had occurred.