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From: jsk@phoenix.UUCP (Jerry Kickenson)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: cheating on programming assignments
Message-ID: <1414@phoenix.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Apr-87 10:47:48 EST
Article-I.D.: phoenix.1414
Posted: Thu Apr 16 10:47:48 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 19-Apr-87 08:43:34 EST
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft, NJ
Lines: 42
Keywords: cheating

I have been reading several postings concerning cheating on programming
assignments.  I've been quite surprised about how it seems to be handled.

I have been a graduate teaching assistant and then an instructor in
computer science at the University of North Carolina.  An instructor there
is not permitted to punish a student in any way for cheating.  If the
instructor suspects cheating, he/she must present the evidence to the
student attorney general of the University (a student elected by the students).
The attorney general then decides whether to pursue the matter.  If the
decision is not to pursue, that is the end of the matter (unless the
instructor is very upset).  If pursued, the case goes before the University
honor court, made up of students, faculty and staff.

The process is laborious but is designed to protect students and faculty.
Determining whether cheating has occurred is often difficult.  This decision
should not be made by one teacher.  Instead a court makes this decision.
The instructor simply presents evidence.  A student is protected from a
possibly biased instructor.  What constitutes cheating is standardized 
across the university, not defined differently for each instructor.
Instructors are protected from angry students (a meek instructor can "hide"
behind the decisions of the attorney general and the court) and also from
possible law suits.

If a student is convicted of cheating, the punishment is harsh.
Unless there are exceptional mitigating circumstances (rare), a student
convicted of cheating is suspended from school for the remainder of the
semester and withdraw failing is placed on his/her transcript for the course
in which he/she cheated.

Personally, I have suspected cheating several times as a TA.  The professor
chose not to call in the attorney general.  As an instructor, I did submit
a case to the attorney general.  The student eventually admitted cheating
(the case was pretty damning) and the court suspended him.

Cheating (and plagiarism) should be treated seriously.  Punishment should
be harsh (I believe a student at Princeton was once thrown out of school in
her senior year and lost her degree).  To balance things, the establishment
of cheating should also be careful and involve several unbiased and
experienced people.  I feel that an instructor should not have the power
to unilaterally give out zeros because he/she thinks cheating has occurred
(is appeal possible?), and that a zero on a program is a slap in the wrist
for cheating.