Need permission to collaborate
An upper division student was referred to Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) for unauthorized collaboration on a take-home final in a philosophy class. After the exam had been turned in, the instructor noticed that the student’s exam bore similarities to another exam, including similar typos and grammar mistakes. This led the instructor to believe that the students must have worked together or that one copied off of the other. Upon meeting with a judicial officer, the student admitted that he had worked with his friend on the exam, stating that neither student had realized that working together was prohibited. He also claimed that he was not aware of the university’s policy regarding collaboration, which is that students can only collaborate on work that will be turned in for a grade if the instructor explicitly permits it, and then only to the extent that the instructor allows. The student agreed to the sanctions of disciplinary probation and community service.
Innocent until proven guilty
An instructor referred a student to SJA for submitting an essay that she suspected contained plagiarism after noticing a large discrepancy in quality from one section of the paper to another. When the student met with a judicial officer, the student stated that he had worked many hours on the essay up until the day it was due, doing draft after draft, but had then learned the morning the paper was due that it wasn’t long enough. The student said that he had quickly added to the paper, but did not have time to edit or polish it. After deciding that the student was telling the truth, the officer determined that the student was innocent and all charges were dropped.
Two referrals, two-quarter suspension
A student was referred to SJA twice within the span of a few days for two unrelated charges: falsification of documents and the use of unauthorized materials during an exam. In the first case, the student had filed for an incomplete in two courses and had provided documentation for each one. The student was referred when the undergraduate academic programs office noticed that the documents did not make sense. In the second case, one of the teaching assistants proctoring an exam in a biology course noticed that the student had notes out. Upon meeting with the SJA officer, the student admitted that she had falsified the documents and also that she had unauthorized materials in her lap while taking the exam. The student agreed to a two-quarter suspension, deferred dismissal and community service.
Campus Judicial Reports are compiled by members of STUDENT JUDICIAL AFFAIRS.
