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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Campus Judicial Affairs

He or She?

A female student in an engineering class was recently referred to Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) for allegedly having another student take an exam for her.  The professor first became suspicious after noticing that a male turned in a test with a female name on it.  On the day the test was returned, the professor observed that a female who bore no resemblance to the male picked up the test.  The student denied that a male student had submitted her exam, alleging that she had turned in the test herself with her name on it.  The student was issued an Administrative Notice.  Although it is not a disciplinary sanction, an Administrative Notice means that Student Judicial Affairs will keep a record of the incident.  This record would likely aggravate disciplinary sanctions if the student is found in violation for a similar incident in the future.

Wrong Answer

A student in a different engineering class was referred to SJA for allegedly copying a solutions manual for a homework assignment.  The professor specifically told the class not to use the solutions manual to solve the homework problems. Since one of the answers in the solutions manual was wrong, the professor would be able to catch anyone who copied from it.  The student was referred because her answer matched the incorrect answer in the solutions manual.  However, what the professor did not realize was that the answer to half of the problems was in the back of the class text, and the answer given in the textbook was also incorrect.  Thus, when the student met with a Judicial Officer, she alleged that she did the problem on her own and got an answer.  She stated that she checked her answer in the back of the textbook, realized that it was different than the answer in the book and tried to work backwards from the given answer to solve the problem.  The University decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and her referral was resolved with an Administrative Notice.

Website Catches Student

A student was reported to SJA for plagiarizing an essay in a design class.  Students in the class were required to submit their papers to turnitin.com, a website that identifies similarities between papers.  When the website came up with a 40% similarity rating, the professor became suspicious. The professor then realized that the paper used many of the same words and visuals as an assignment turned in the previous year by another student.  The student later admitted that he had copied some of his work from a friend who had taken the class previously.  The student agreed to be placed on Deferred Separation status, meaning that if the student is found in violation of academic misconduct again, he will likely be suspended or dismissed from the University.  The student also agreed to do 15 hours of community service.

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