A Southern University registrar employee accepted bribes to change grades from more than 500 students, the university’s chancellor Edward Jackson said in a press conference April 1.

Jackson said 541 undergraduate and graduate students at Southern University, the nation’s largest historically black university in the nation, paid to have up to 20 grades changed in past and present records.

The university uncovered the operation by discovering false computer records, including a case in which the university awarded the student a degree that she did not earn, Jackson said in the conference.

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Douglas Moreau has adopted the case from the university and told the Associated Press he intends to prosecute students and university employees involved in the scandal aggressively.

Moreau also said possible charges filed in the case could include forgery, bribery and filing untrue records. The investigation spans more than 2,000 potential grade switches.

The university’s investigation began in March 2003 concerning admissions to a university graduate program. A student claimed she had earned a bachelor’s degree from the university but the school had no record of the woman’s graduation.

The woman’s claim alerted university officials, who then discovered a multitude of other errors in the university’s academic records.

Jackson said in the conference that the university has begun to contact the 541 past and current students who allegedly bribed the registrar employee. Each student is entitled to a hearing before an administrative and faculty panel.