March 7, 2008
Ryerson U. Student Faces Expulsion for Running a Facebook Group
A student at Ryerson University, in Toronto, is facing expulsion for running a Facebook study group, the Toronto Star reports.
Chris Avenir, a first-year engineering student, is facing expulsion from the school on 147 counts of academic charges — one for himself, and one for every student who used the Facebook group “Dungeons/Mastering Chemistry Solutions” to get homework help.
University officials say that running such a group is in violation of the school’s academic policy, which says no student can undertake activity to gain academic advantage. Students argue, however, that the group was analogous to any in-person study group.
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first Facebook-related expulsion hearing.
The expulsion hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.—Hurley Goodall
Posted on Friday March 7, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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“any deliberate activity to gain academic advantage”
like studying?
— PJ Mar 8, 05:12 PM #
The interesting part is whether Ryerson’s motives are more related to academic honesty or issues of educational (financial) monopolizing.
— ThomasW Mar 10, 08:00 AM #
It is interesting to me the students are punished severely for using the technology that is available to them. If students could join the group and collectively help each other, through studying together how is that different than other forms of study groups?
— Cath Mar 10, 11:56 AM #
Welcome to the Monkey House.
— JLK Mar 10, 12:48 PM #
@PJ: exactly. A bit more explanation is needed of that academic policy. If that’s really what it says – no activity to gain academic advantage – then it’s ridiculous.
— Jim Mar 10, 01:32 PM #
I’m confused, what’s the crime? Did the student post answers to an upcoming exam? NO!
— Nikki Mar 10, 03:43 PM #
The crime is modernity.
— Marci Mar 10, 08:37 PM #
Thanks for this, I just blogged ‘both sides’ on Shaping Youth, as I fail to see the conundrum unless it was a ‘for profit’ venture or a blatant exercise in skidding past workload…As Wired Campus has reported, it’s odd to ‘market’ the universities with media and then expect kids not to use it? Whasssup with that?
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=1196
— Amy Jussel Mar 10, 09:45 PM #
I’m confused. Shouldn’t students be encouraged to utilize all available resources to engage with course material, and with one another, in the process of LEARNING??? The article does not clearly explain how the facebook group was utilized — so if homework answers were posted, that is not necessarily helpful to the learning process – but if students were engaging in questions and answers, I’m not sure why they face expulsion…..
— Kelly Mar 11, 11:42 AM #