ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — A dean at a St. Louis university is accused of tampering with student files during her previous job at St. Charles Community College.
Nicole Nunn-Faron, dean of the College of Education at Harris-Stowe State University, is charged with one misdemeanor count of tampering with computer data. Harris-Stowe confirmed in a statement that in light of the charge, she had been placed on a leave of absence pending an internal investigation.
Nunn-Faron started her role at Harris-Stowe on July 1, but she previously served as the education department chair at St. Charles Community College from 2013 to 2024.
In court documents, St. Charles Community College police said on Apr. 23, 2024, a school faculty member tried to access a shared folder, but it was missing. The IT department found that under Nunn-Faron's login, more than 450 files were deleted from the college's Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage.
Police said IT recovered the files with the help of Microsoft, but Microsoft said before the files were deleted, they were copied to an external hard drive.
Police said some of the files included personal student information including names, addresses and phone numbers. One such document was a tuberculosis test consent form from SSM Health, which included names, college ID numbers, dates of birth and ages.
Police said during the investigation, they found Nunn-Faron had asked an IT staff member for help moving the files to an external hard drive.
The court documents said on July 23, the hard drive Nunn-Faron moved the files to was turned over to the college by her attorney.
Nunn-Faron's initial court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 24 in St. Charles County Circuit Court.
Nunn-Faron was also among six people who filed suit against St. Charles Community College in June, alleging they experienced retaliation for bringing "good faith concerns of unlawful or improper conduct" to the college's attention.
A spokesperson for Harris-Stowe State University provided the following statement:
"We have recently been made aware of charges filed against Dr. Nicole Nunn-Faron, alleging she tampered with hundreds of student files during her previous employment at St. Charles Community College.
"We were not informed of this investigation or the pending charges during Dr. Nunn-Faron's hiring process. We maintain rigorous standards for all faculty and staff to ensure the integrity of our institution and the quality of education we provide to our students.
"In light of these serious allegations, Dr. Nunn-Faron has been put on a leave of absence pending our internal investigation. We are committed to upholding the highest ethical standards.
"Our priority remains providing excellent education and support to our students."
An email sent Monday evening to a spokesperson for St. Charles Community College was not immediately returned.
Faron's attorney, Sherrie Hall with Workers Rights Law Firm, shared the following statement:
Dr. Nicole Nunn-Faron asks that she be afforded her constitutional presumption of innocence regarding the misdemeanor tampering charge against her – which she first learned of through the media. This matter should not be tried in the press. The materials on the hard drive were placed there by a representative of St. Charles Community College’s IT department, not by Dr. Nunn-Faron. In addition, the files that were deleted were deleted by the same IT representative. We believe when the process is completed, Dr. Nunn-Faron will be exonerated.
