Caught in the act
During an exam, a TA noticed that a student was looking for extended periods of time in the directions of the students sitting around him. It was made clear that this was not simply a case of wandering eyes when the student was observed clearly trying to discern what was on his neighbors’ exams. Furthermore, he did not simply look once, but the cheating was noticed again at least 15 minutes after the TA first noticed his actions. On one occasion, the student was looking both directly at his neighbor’s paper when he realized the professor was standing no more than 10 feet away. Upon noticing the professor, he quickly turned his head and looked as if he had been caught doing something. Because it is explicitly against the rules to look at another student’s exam, he accepted probation through graduation and 20 hours of community service.
Similar solutions
A student was referred to Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) when a TA grading lab reports recognized answers from the previous quarter’s solution key. The professor had posted the solutions to the lab from the previous quarter on SmartSite, but it was made clear that the students had to do their own work. A number of students had answers identical to what was posted by the professor online. The Judicial Officer issued a censure to the student, warning that repeated behavior could result in more serious consequences.
Double trouble
While grading quizzes, a TA noticed two students had virtually identical answers to all parts of a quiz, which happened to be distinctly wrong. The two quizzes were next to each other in the stack of quizzes, indicating that the pair were next to each other when the quizzes were collected. Although cheating was not directly observed, the probability of the quizzes being so similar and next to each other as well was incredibly small. Consequently, the students were referred to SJA, and accepted deferred separation as well as 15 hours of community service.
