A former U. Wyoming student pleaded guilty to tampering with professors’ grades online in an attempt to improve his GPA. Instead of receiving a boost to his report card, he faces serving three years in prison.

“For some reason I thought it would be a good idea,” Evan Schafer, a 21-year-old former UW English major, said in describing how he altered his grades online. “It was a very stupid decision.”

Second District Court Judge Jeffrey Donnell told Shafer he could face a prison sentence and a $3,000 fine by pleading guilty to a charge of crimes against computer users Friday in Albany County District Court.

“There are serious consequences to a guilty plea,” Donnell said to Schafer prior to changing his plea. “You may find yourself serving three years in the state pen.”

Assistant Albany County Attorney Jennifer Stone recommended that Schafer receive an 18- to 36-month sentence to be suspended and reduced to supervised probation. Stone also dropped a charge of crimes against intellectual property upon Shafer changing his plea.

Donnell said the plea change meant there is no guarantee of the severity of the sentence he may receive and that he would be stuck with the sentence once it has been imposed.

Schafer said he changed numbers in a series of classes last December in order to improve his low -scoring grades.

“He did not have permission to log in on their passwords and change grades,” Stone said.

Schafer breached one instructor’s account by entering the teacher’s last name as the password, he said.

“I thought I was lucky,” Schafer said, describing how he discovered the instructor’s password with little effort or strain on his time.

Donnell scolded Schafer for not putting forth a stronger effort toward school and said he set out to break into the instructor’s online account and did not merely stumble upon the password.

“This wasn’t some accident or lightning bolt out of the sky,” Donnell said.

Stone said she had a strong case against Schafer because he admitted to breaking into teachers’ accounts when UW Police questioned him in January.

Schafer is free on a $10,000 bond and will face a sentencing hearing sometime within the next two months, Stone said.

Schafer said he was a strong student when he first came to UW, but he struggled in classes as time went on and eventually cheated in order to improve his grades.

“I was a successful student the first semester,” he said.

Facing a possible three-year prison sentence in Rawlins, Schafer said he is remorseful for trying to cheat his way to higher grades.

“Absolutely, I regret it,” he said.