LUBBOCK -
Texas Tech's business school dean will resign effective at the end of the year after an investigation into allegations that he improperly changed students' grades.
Lance Nail will remain in the Rawls College as a tenured professor of finance and chairman of the Tech Innovation Hub at Research Park Board of Directors.
Statistics professor Jay Conover said he has been teaching at universities for more than 50 years and he has never heard of anything like this. He said final grades for four of his students were raised - without his knowledge - allowing them to graduate.
"It really bothered me that a D was changed to an A, other Ds were changed to Bs, and a C was changed to an A. They didn't deserve those grades. It did not reflect at all their performance in the course," Conover said.
According to university policy regarding grade changes, the dean, in this case, Lance Nail, must request information in writing from the instructor then present it and the student's appeal to the college grade appeals board.
Conover said that never happened.
"The dean of the graduate school said that Dean Nail's signature was on the line that said instructor," Conover said, "I asked him, 'did you think he was the instructor?' and he said 'no, but he was the dean of the business school, so I didn't question it."
Provost Lawrence Schovanec formed a committee in August to look into the allegations of policy violations. The committee's findings were delivered in a report to the provost last month.
In response, Schovanec said policies are in place to protect fundamental academic standards.
"In a matter like this, people have different perspectives into how those policies have to be interpreted, but ultimately the committee decided that we hadn't followed those policies in a very important and fundamental way," he said.
According to the committee report obtained by FOX34, "there is no indication that a formal grade appeal was considered" and there is no evidence to support the argument that the grade changes were justified."
The students were also "not asked to complete and therefore did not file the required grade appeal forms to initiate the appeal process," something that is required according to university policy."
In a letter to the provost today, Nail said he regrets but feels compelled to resign as dean of Rawls College of business as of year-end.
We reached out to him for comment, but did not hear back.
Schovanec said university administrators are looking into what to do about those four students whose grades were changed, saying it's complicated, because they have already graduated from Texas Tech.
(Below are the links to documents released by Texas Tech University).
Nail's response
Committee report
Resignation Agreement
Nails's resignation letter
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