A Northwestern student who was arrested and expelled after breaking into his professor’s office and attempting to change his grades appeared Feb. 1 at Circuit Court in Skokie on a felony charge of burglary.
Vincent M. Rosso, 20, a Weinberg junior, confessed in December to breaking into his computer science professor’s office with a crowbar, attempting to change his grades by altering his professor’s computer file and stealing his professor’s laptop computer, said Lt. Glenn Turner of University Police.
He is scheduled to appear at Circuit Court on April 30 after completing a two-month psychological evaluation requested by his defense attorney, Turner said.
Asst. Prof. Jennifer Schopf arrived at her third-floor office at 1890 Maple Ave. on Dec. 8, the Friday of finals week of fall quarter, to find her office door open, the door handle almost broken off, her desktop computer turned off and her laptop computer missing, Turner said.
She noticed that a spreadsheet on the hard drive containing grades for her 120-student Operating Systems 343 class had been altered at 6:30 a.m. on Dec. 6, Turner said. By comparing a hard copy of the grades with the file, Schopf determined that three students’ grades had been changed.
The building’s electronic access record shows Rosso — one of the three students whose grades were changed — used a keycard given to computer science majors to enter the third floor at 6:15 a.m. of that same day, Turner said.
UP contacted Rosso on Dec. 8, and he confessed to the break-in and the theft, as well as an attempted break-in to the philosophy department, 1818 Hinman Ave., the same night.
“He said he was worried about his parents finding out his grades were poor,” Turner said. “I don’t think we’ve ever caught a student doing something like this.”
Though Director of Residential Life Gregg Kindle declined to comment on the matter, Schopf said she was “100 percent sure” Rosso was expelled from the university the day he confessed.
Turner said Rosso stole the laptop computer and changed other students’ grades to throw police off track.
“He didn’t want it to be obvious that it was him,” Turner said. “He wanted it to look good.”
Rosso told police the location of a dumpster that contained Schopf’s laptop computer, which was recovered and returned to Schopf.
Schopf said the spreadsheet Rosso changed was used to set up final grades for the class. She said he changed all of his grades for individual assignments.
“However, the real grades were posted on a Web page that had nothing to do with any changes he made,” Schopf said.
Schopf said she didn’t know “anything about” Rosso other than his enrollment in the class.
“To my knowledge he never came to class,” she said. “I’d never met him. The first time I saw him was last week at the courthouse.”
Schopf said that Rosso did not hand in six out of eight assignments in the class.
She said Rosso sent her an e-mail three days before he broke into her office. In the e-mail, Rosso asked Schopf about resubmitting some of his assignments, a standard procedure for the class.
Schopf told Rosso it was “unnecessary since he had already failed the class.”
Turner said Rosso admitted to breaking a window in the basement of the philosophy department to change another class grade. But Rosso said he heard noises and ran before he could access the right computer.
“His grades hadn’t been well for a while,” Turner said.
The felony charge has nothing to do with Rosso’s attempt to change his grades, but rather his theft of Schopf’s laptop, Turner said.
“I think the court will be fairly lenient with him, especially if he’s expelled,” Turner said.
Rosso could not be reached for comment Sunday.
