ORLANDO, Fla. — A former University of Central Florida professor is accused of selling grades to students for charity donations.
But Dr. Kenneth Vehec said it was a misunderstanding.
“That is so abhorrent to me. I can't believe someone would actually think that. I've been teaching out there for 14 years,” said Vehec.
The university said the adjunct psychology professor allowed students to skip writing papers and taking exams in exchange for the donations.
Vehec is not allowed in a UCF classroom.
He said he would hand out extra credit to students if they got involved in events around campus, but denied students could buy their grades by donating money to a charity.
According to documents obtained by Channel 9, a complaint was filed on Dec. 7 with the UCF Integrity Line. A student reported that Vehec announced to his psychology class during the first week of school that “if they donated $100 to the charity event of his teaching assistant, they would not have to write the final five-page paper for his class, and instead, would receive an automatic 100."
The complaint goes on to say that Vehec would also offer students a chance to get an automatic 100 on the final paper if they donated $25 to the USO.
The university investigated and concluded that Vehec did allow students to make charitable contributions to satisfy academic requirements.
Vehec was fired Monday.
"Buying grades -- no that's just not anything near what happened in class," said Vehec.
Vehec said he had not seen the UCF report, or an email from his teaching assistant and members of the Tri Delta sorority, asking members of his class to purchase the $100 tickets to play in a charity poker tournament or donate $100 to be exempt from the required paper.
"As the head of the class, I take full responsibility for what goes out. So I'm not going to put anything down on anybody else. It was my class. It becomes my issue," he said.
Vehec said he will miss teaching at UCF and that he taught there because he wanted to, not because he had to.
Vehec was partial owner of the Orlando Predators and is partial owner of an arena football team in Kansas City. He said he will be busy doing that this year since it is the team's inaugural season.
Cox Media Group
