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[walker]

Have you ever caught a student cheating/plagiarizing, brought charges against him/her, only to see the student get away with it? Like maybe the Dean's office dismisses the case, or student judicial system finds the student not guilty because of a technicality, in spite of the obvious dishonesty?

What do you do at that point? Do you have to grade the paper/exam as if the cheating never took place?

[bio_prof_]

Yes, I have had the misfortune of experiencing this. The only good part was that the class was over, so I did not have to deal with the student again.

[gennimom]

I had this happen ONCE. The student had a study guide in his/her lap, kept covering it with a jacket. I took up the test, wrote the student up, and sent them to the office (high school student). Daddy pitched a fit, said I had no PROOF the student was cheating. I had to regive the test. The student passed. OF course the student wasn't stupid, and had extra time to study. My principal gave in because the parent was a former teacher at that school.
I would hope a similar situation in college wouldn't happen, but you never know.

[mcdlt]

Yes, yes, and yes.  A number of years ago, some students presented individual assignments that were word for word, typo for typo, identical.

The Academic Dishonesty Committee decided that although the students had engaged in AD, I had neglected to include the disclaimer "NOT A GROUP WORK ASSIGNMENT" to the assignment sheet.

I got a colleague to grade the assignments for me.

[much_metta]

Been there.  Took a group of students I caught falsifying attendance/class participation (behemoth class--long story) to judicial board.  Was told that because I did not explicitly and specifically list what they had done as "academic dishonesty" on my syllabus, that it could not be considered as such, even though the board was unanimous that what the students had done was egregious, dishonorable, and clearly contrary to the stated intentions of the honor code.  I was allowed to give them a zero on the assignment (since they had clearly not attended/participated, by their own admission), but I was not permitted to further penalize them for their actions (i.e., failure in the course).  The chair had to grade the rest of their work for the rest of the semester.  If you are in a similar situation where the board/dean lets the student off, CYA!  Speak with your chair about how to avoid even the appearance of impropriety for all future assignments regarding that student.  

[bio_prof_]

Oh. My. God.

I have an ominous feeling that many, many more posts are to follow...

[iomhaigh]

I had a serial plagiarist sue hus way out of a plagiarism charge. 

We struck a deal wherein I did not accept the papers, but she did not fail the course. 

[sikora]

When I was teaching graduate students, I had  phd student plagerize a take home test.  He got away with through a "second chance."

Obscure, but still the first dog in space

[gennimom]

In other words, folks, dot your I's and cross your T's! Scary.

[larryc]

I had a cheater dead to rights once and the Dean of Students told me that he had been expelled.  The next semester I saw the kid on campus. I called the dean and said "WTF?" The dean explained that the kid had denied everything and that expelling him would have meant "a lot of paperwork and meetings."

I took it to the Faculty Senate and got a public apology from the dean.  Nothing happened to the cheater.

[johnr]

Been there.  Took a group of students I caught falsifying attendance/class participation (behemoth class--long story) to judicial board.  Was told that because I did not explicitly and specifically list what they had done as "academic dishonesty" on my syllabus, that it could not be considered as such, even though the board was unanimous that what the students had done was egregious, dishonorable, and clearly contrary to the stated intentions of the honor code.  I was allowed to give them a zero on the assignment (since they had clearly not attended/participated, by their own admission), but I was not permitted to further penalize them for their actions (i.e., failure in the course).  The chair had to grade the rest of their work for the rest of the semester.  If you are in a similar situation where the board/dean lets the student off, CYA!  Speak with your chair about how to avoid even the appearance of impropriety for all future assignments regarding that student.  

Here's a better ending to this story, and it's true. A very, very similar thing happened at our university. The cheating was egregious and obvious, but because that EXACT type of cheating was not outlined in the honor code the judicial review board let the student off.  The professor who caught the student cheating submitted her resignation to the Provost (she was a great  professor in a high demand field).  Her resignation letter stated that she could not teach at a University where this type of behavior was tolerated. The judicial board backed off, apologized to professor, and punished the student appropriately. The professor stayed and nobody but nobody messes with her now. Needless to say, she is my hero.     

[kishter]

When I was a TA working with Very Famous Professor, I caught an egregious cheater with finely-honed cheating methods who turned out to be a serial offender.  VFP, who was notoriously nasty to grad students, told me to let the cheater off because VFP didn't want to deal with it.  Grrr.  Apparently her theory was that grad students needed the harsher treatment (said notorious nastiness), while undergrads--even the best of the best cheaters--were just little ones finding their way. 

Does this count as a technicality?  Probably not ... but it sure was aggravating. 

[mandywoetzel]

This happened to me last year. I had a student who had no idea how to do anything in my lab course throughout the semester. In the end, however, she produced a rather impressive paper.

Knowing that Hu's spouse was enrolled in our doctoral program in the same field, I asked Hu whether she had gotten any help from the spouse. Hu said, "Of course! I wouldn't have been able to do this paper at all without [Hu's spouse]'s help!"

I reported her and failed her, then my Chair reversed my decision by stating that plagiarism only involved copying others' works--and that getting help from others did not constitute cheating.  I could have gone higher to the appropriate committee, but the student had already graduated and I frankly didn't give a rat's ass about the situation, so I let it go.

[copper]

In my first year of grad school I had a student turn in a paper, three weeks late, that was copied directly out of our textbook.  The paragraphs were stuck together in an odd order, with random sentences between them.  Failing grade, definitely.  Highlighted everthing & submitted it to the (faculty-run) academic intergity office.  Nothing happened.  Why?  I forgot that players on our top-ten ranked NCAA I football team are exempt from all rules.  And it turned out he was technically "innocent" because it was the academic coach of the team that had actually put all that intellectual power into pasting paragraphs out of the text together. 

[psychle]

Here's a better ending to this story, and it's true. A very, very similar thing happened at our university. The cheating was egregious and obvious, but because that EXACT type of cheating was not outlined in the honor code the judicial review board let the student off.  The professor who caught the student cheating submitted her resignation to the Provost (she was a great  professor in a high demand field).  Her resignation letter stated that she could not teach at a University where this type of behavior was tolerated. The judicial board backed off, apologized to professor, and punished the student appropriately. The professor stayed and nobody but nobody messes with her now. Needless to say, she is my hero.     

Bravo! It's nice to read about someone standing up for what she believes in and not letting cheating students slide by on technicalities.