Administrative notice
A student was referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) for copying and/or collaborating during a final exam. The teaching assistant stated that although she did not notice any suspicious behavior during the exam, two students who sat next to each other had very similar short answer responses. Both students used the same examples and explanations for several responses. When meeting with a judicial officer, the student adamantly denied cheating during the final, but stated that he did study with the friend who was sitting next to him during the final exam. Since this was the student’s first referral to SJA, he was given the benefit of the doubt and was issued a non-disciplinary administrative notice.
Disciplinary probation
A professor reported this first-year student to SJA for copying and/or collaborating during an exam. The professor stated that she observed the student looking at another person’s work over the span of 10 minutes. When grading the tests, the professor noticed that the two students had very similar multiple-choice answers and shared several incorrect responses. When meeting with a judicial officer, the student admitted to looking at the exam of the student in front of her and was very apologetic. She stated that she was having family issues at the time and did not have enough time to study. Since this was the student’s first referral to SJA, she was offered the sanctions of disciplinary probation for a year and completion of a writing assignment. In addition, she was referred to Counseling and Psychological Services for stress management.
Deferred separation
This junior was referred to SJA for copying and/or collaborating on a final project. The professor stated that students were allowed to work together, but were supposed to submit their own work -and this student’s answers were suspiciously similar to another person’s answers. He also stated that the two students had almost identical source files and codes, which is very unusual. The student admitted that she had copied the codes and source files and that her friend had no idea that she had copied. This was the student’s first referral to SJA. She agreed to deferred separation until graduation.
What does it all mean?
These three cases of copying and/or collaborating increase in severity and therefore the severity of the sanctions increase as well. An administrative notice means that the student was not found in violation of the rules, however, if referred to SJA again for copying and/or collaborating, disciplinary actions would follow. The second student was offered disciplinary probation instead of deferred separation, because the student was a first-year and is not as accustomed to the quarter system and the exam the second student copied from was worth less than the final project in the third student’s case.
Campus Judicial Reports are compiled by members of STUDENT JUDICIAL AFFAIRS. Apply to become a member on the third floor of Dutton Hall by March 15.
