After the indictment of three Florida A&M students for allegedly changing grades, outsiders may view the school negatively.
Quite frankly, who would not view FAMU in a negative way? Within the past four years, the university has been on the news for accreditation probation, hazing in the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., case and now students allegedly gaining unauthorized access to FAMU computer records and changing about 90 students’ grades. These grade changes affected 650 total grades.
Because of this incident and others, FAMU students must work twice as hard to prove themselves. These actions cast a shadow over the university, giving people a reason to question the university’s culture and ethics, as well as the validity of our academic programs. Now FAMU students may look bad to graduate schools and employers.
People may also consider FAMU’s personnel and computer systems incompetent because students were easily able to access protected such sensitive information. FAMU has already dropped from the top university for African-Americans, according to Black Enterprise. We do not need any more reasons for people to think FAMU is not top quality.
The only way we can show the public that the university will not tolerate this kind of behavior is to support a harsh conviction of the guilty parties.
It is sad to see fellow Rattlers go through the justice system, but if these students are convicted then they must take responsibility for their actions and serve time.
Latasha Edwards for the Editorial Board.