Stu Dents, Eddy Tors Are I. Rate : Officials Want to Hang Dean’s-List Prankster, If Only in Effie Gee

Although the latest Dean’s List is one of the longest ever at Valley College, the turnout may be a little lower than expected Wednesday when the school’s top scholars are honored at a special tea.

Dee Generet won’t be there. Neither will Wratha Kahn, Rex Karrs, Gray Poupon, Hans Zoff, Anita Ficks, Roger Overndowt, N. Nigma, Mistar Spauk, Warren Peese and about 60 other honorees included on the Dean’s List printed in the lastest edition of the college newspaper.

A computer hacker apparently broke into the Valley Star’s typesetting equipment and added the names of fictitious people such as Claire D. Aisle and Betty Crocker and about 25 real Valley College students who did not earn the 3.6 grade point average out of 4.0 needed to legitimately make the list, officials said.

Those who made the list the hard way were angry Monday over how easy it apparently was for someone to alter it.

‘People Work Hard’

“I personally feel it’s insulting,” said Lisa Walker, student body president-elect and a sophomore architecture student whose grades qualified her for a real spot on the list. “People work hard to be on the Dean’s List. It’s not just a little thing to me.”

Freshman business major Carrie Spector, who did not make the list, said: “Everybody’s making comments about it. I think people are taking it seriously. I think it was a dumb thing to do.”

Red-faced student editors immediately launched a hunt for the prankster and pledged to print the correct list--and an apology--in their next edition of the weekly paper, which has a circulation of 6,500.

“We took the Dean’s List that was submitted to us and typed it into the computer and proofread it a couple of times and stored it on the disk,” said Dean Hotta, a sophomore journalism major who is the paper’s editor-in-chief. Sometime after that, he said, someone altered the list by adding the bogus names, including some that were off-color.

After the story was set in type, “I gave it a quick glance and saw nothing wrong. About 15 or 20 people know how to operate the machines. I haven’t the slightest clue who did it.”

Neither did Prof. William Payden, who heads the community college’s journalism department. The name Will Payden Jr. was included on the list, although Payden said he is single and has no son enrolled at the school.

“We’ve been voted the best paper in the U.S. six times in the past 15 years,” Payden said Monday. “This sure as heck doesn’t do us any good.”

Payden said the culprit will be reprimanded by journalism teachers if found. If it turns out that an editor was responsible, that person will be removed from the staff, he said.

18,000-Student Campus

The dean for whom the list is named is Gloria E. Miranda, assistant dean of student affairs at the 18,000-student campus. She said about 400 students should have been on the list.

“It was inflated by about 70 names,” she said. “I was dismayed. You’re talking about academic achievement. A number of students on the list were particularly upset and insulted.”

She said any punishment will be up to journalism teachers. But college President Mary Lee will likely address the seriousness of the list tampering when she speaks at Wednesday’s tea, Miranda said.

Unfortunately, honoree No. 375 won’t be there to hear of the importance of the Dean’s List. He’s Dean Slist. And he’s a phony.

Times staff writer Philipp Gollner contributed to this story.