A grade-fixing administrator at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business headed to Rikers last week to serve a six-month sentence.
Chris Koutsoutis, 56, who copped to forgery and falsifying business records on 11 grade-change slips to help eight flunking graduate students pass, expressed remorse before a judge in Manhattan Criminal Court.
“I apologize to the court, to Baruch and especially to my family,” Koutsoutis said.
He will be on probation for five years.
Koutsoutis “acknowledged what he did. He used poor judgment,” said his attorney, Mark Bederow.
“The greater question is: What is the academic culture at Baruch? Chris is a small piece of it.”
Three professors were disciplined as a result of the grade-fixing scandal, and two others are still in disciplinary hearings.
Their roles varied from failure to report irregularities to school officials to complicity with Koutsoutis, said John Brenkman, the school’s interim acting provost, adding that he could not discuss individual cases.
Punishment could vary from written reprimands in permanent files to suspension without pay, he said.
The cases are not handled by the university alone and often wound up in arbitration with the faculty union, he said.