Ignorance isn’t bliss
An international student in an upper-division course was referred to Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) for copying answers verbatim on two different homework assignments. When the student met with a judicial officer, he admitted to copying the homework answers from the internet but that he was not aware it was wrong to do. Although the student stated he did not know copying homework was prohibited, the UC Davis Code of Academic Conduct clearly states that “ignorance is no defense,” that students must be “honest at all times” and that “all work submitted to fulfill course requirements must be work done by the student.” As a result of his actions, the student was placed on disciplinary probation for one year and required to complete 10 hours of community service.
One for the road
A professor referred a student to SJA because he suspected the student had pocketed an extra exam when they were passed out. The professor had numbered the exams, so it was simple to identify which student had the extra exam paper by finding where the number sequence broke. When the student was called in to speak to a judicial officer, it was determined that he had indeed gotten an extra copy of the exam, but that he had handed it to the TA after realizing it. The TA was contacted to confirm this, and the exam was found among some of the TA’s papers. After clearing up the situation, the student was found to be innocent and no sanctions were applied.
It was a last resort
A student in a lower-division science class was recently referred to SJA for altering an exam before submitting it for a re-grade. The sizable incongruity in how the original test was graded and how it supposedly should have been graded seemed strange to one of the TAs. After meeting with a judicial officer, the student admitted that she had changed some answers. It turns out that she had been distraught over her original grade and in the heat of the moment viewed the regrade process as a quick way to salvage her grade. Due to the fact that this was the student’s first violation and because she had come clean about altering her exam, she was placed on disciplinary probation and required to complete community service hours.
