Harvard in another plagiarism scandal

[The Outsider]

After Kaavya's brilliant attempt at construing a novel, 125 students at Harvard are being probed for plagiarism in an undergraduate class. http://professional.wsj.com/article/NA_EP-CFO_SUB:SB10000872396390443618604577621722990803352.html?mg=reno-wsj

Harvard University said it is investigating 125 students for possibly cheating on a take-home final exam, in what would be the largest such case at the Ivy League school in recent memory. The university said Thursday it is looking into whether students in an undergraduate course last semester "inappropriately collaborated on answers, or plagiarized their classmates' responses" on the final. Harvard isn't releasing the names of the course or students involved, but said the allegations are limited to one class. The course is "Government 1310: Introduction to Congress," according to someone familiar with the probe. After reviewing more than 250 take-home exams turned in last Spring, the Harvard College Administrative Board has opened cases involving nearly half the members of the class. The school has contacted every student whose work is under review. "These allegations, if proven, represent totally unacceptable behavior that betrays the trust upon which intellectual inquiry at Harvard depends," said Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust. The scandal hangs over what is usually an upbeat time at Harvard. Students are arriving or returning for another academic year and classes begin Tuesday. In a lengthy statement on its website, the university said the cheating allegations emerged last semester, when the faculty member teaching the class noticed oddly similar answers on a number of exams, and referred the matter to the administrative board, which launched a broad review and found about 125 exams were questionable. "The board's process is still under way and the board has come to no judgments about specific cases," the university said. Because no cases have been resolved, the students under investigation are expected to return to campus as normal. Students found to have cheated could face discipline, includingÍÃut not limited toÍÃeing forced to withdraw from the college for a year. Harvard said it would use the situation to initiate a "campus-wide discussion" about academic integrity. A Harvard dean wrote faculty members Thursday outlining steps they can take to "reinforce Harvard's policies." "We take academic integrity very seriously because it goes to the heart of our educational mission," said Michael D. Smith, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences. "Academic dishonesty cannot and will not be tolerated at Harvard."

[Swing_n_Speed]

Dayum. So What's currently happening with Kaavya? I quite enjoyed her novel.

[EnterTheVoid]

Back in 2005, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowtiz was accused of plagiarism as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dershowitz–Finkelstein_affair

[Crookbond]

Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/education/students-of-harvard-cheating-scandal-say-group-work-was-accepted.html?_r=1

Harvard students suspected in a major cheating scandal said on Friday that many of the accusations are based on innocent — or at least tolerated — collaboration among students, and with help from graduate-student teachers who sometimes gave them answers to test questions. Students said they were tripped up by a course whose tests were confusing, whose grading was inconsistent, and for which the professor and teaching assistants gave contradictory signals about what was expected. They face the possibility of a one-year suspension from Harvard or revocation of their diplomas if they have already graduated, and some said that they will sue the university if any serious punishment is meted out. In years past, the course, Introduction to Congress, had a reputation as one of the easiest at Harvard College. Some of the 279 students who took it in the spring semester said that the teacher, Matthew B. Platt, an assistant professor of government, told them at the outset that he gave high grades and that neither attending his lectures nor the discussion sessions with graduate teaching fellows was mandatory. “He said, ‘I gave out 120 A’s last year, and I’ll give out 120 more,’ ” one accused student said. But evaluations posted online by students after finals — before the cheating charges were made — in Harvard’s Q Guide were filled with seething assessments, and made clear that the class was no longer easy. Many students, who posted anonymously, described Dr. Platt as a great lecturer, but the guide included far more comments like “I felt that many of the exam questions were designed to trick you rather than test your understanding of the material,” “the exams are absolutely absurd and don’t match the material covered in the lecture at all,” “went from being easy last year to just being plain old confusing,” and “this was perhaps the worst class I have ever taken.” Harvard University revealed on Wednesday that nearly half of the undergraduates in the spring class were under investigation for suspected cheating, for working together or for plagiarizing on a take-home final exam. Jay Harris, the dean of undergraduate education, called the episode “unprecedented in its scope and magnitude.” The university would not name the class, but it was identified by students facing cheating allegations. They were granted anonymity because they said they feared that open criticism could influence the outcome of their disciplinary cases. “They’re threatening people’s futures,” said a student who graduated in May. “Having my degree revoked now would mean I lose my job.” The students said they do not doubt that some people in the class did things that were obviously prohibited, like working together in writing test answers. But they said that some of the conduct now being condemned was taken for granted in the course, on previous tests and in previous years. Dr. Platt and his teaching assistants did not respond to messages requesting comment that were left on Friday. In response to calls to Mr. Harris and Michael D. Smith, the dean and chief academic officer of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the university released a statement saying that the university’s administrative board still must meet with each accused student and that it has not reached any conclusions. “We expect to learn more about the way the course was organized and how work was approached in class and on the take-home final,” the statement said. “That is the type of information that the process is designed to bring forward, and we will review all of the facts as they arise.” The class met three times a week, and each student in the class was assigned to one of 10 discussion sections, each of which held weekly sessions with graduate teaching fellows. The course grade was based entirely on four take-home tests, which students had several days to complete and which were graded by the teaching fellows. Students complained that teaching fellows varied widely in how tough they were in grading, how helpful they were, and which terms and references to sources they expected to see in answers. As a result, they said, students routinely shared notes from Dr. Pratt’s lectures, notes from discussion sessions, and reading materials, which they believed was allowed. “I was just someone who shared notes, and now I’m implicated in this,” said a senior who faces a cheating allegation. “Everyone in this class had shared notes. You’d expect similar answers.” Instructions on the final exam said, “students may not discuss the exam with others.” Students said that consulting with the fellows on exams was commonplace, that the fellows generally did not turn students away, and that the fellows did not always understand the questions, either. One student recalled going to a teaching fellow while working on the final exam and finding a crowd of others there, asking about a test question that hinged on an unfamiliar term. The student said the fellow defined the term for them. An accused sophomore said that in working on exams, “everybody went to the T.F.’s and begged for help. Some of the T.F.’s really laid it out for you, as explicit as you need, so of course the answers were the same.” He said that he also discussed test questions with other students, which he acknowledged was prohibited, but he maintained that the practice was widespread and accepted. The exam instructions said it was “completely open book, open note, open Internet, etc.” Some students asked whether there was a fundamental contradiction between telling students to use online resources, but not to discuss the test with each other.