In the wake of the cheating scandal in Computer Science 4 visiting professor Rex Dwyer announced Friday evening he will no longer be teaching the class after students reported that he stormed out of class on Friday afternoon. Dwyer also wrote that he has identified approximately 40 alleged cheaters.
He made the announcement in a BlitzMail message to his class. Dwyer wrote that he had accepted an offer by Chair of the computer science department Scot Drysdale to stop teaching the class, citing personal difficulty in acting fairly to the majority of the class that did not allegedly cheat.
"I apologize for the difficulty I've had lately keeping in mind the interests of the 75-80% of you who have behaved honorably during the course of the term," he wrote.
Dwyer added that he had spent the day on Thursday examining the homework assignment on which several students allegedly cheated. He wrote in the message that he would be turning in "slightly more than 40 names" to the administration.
Those names do not include any individuals who may have received the lines of code legitimately from teaching assistants, Dwyer wrote.
The CS department's reaction
Drysdale said that he discussed with Dwyer the possibility of Dwyer leaving the class on Friday afternoon, though he declined to discuss the reasons behind the offer.
This is the second class that Dwyer has ceased to teach. He asked to be relieved of his CS 15 class once it became apparent that some may have cheated in his CS 4 class citing the time he would need to spend sorting out the allegations.
For CS 4 students, the propagation of the cheating scandal means a new professor and a new schedule.
According to Drysdale, professor Jay Aslam will takeover the CS 4 class for the remaining three weeks of the term, though Drysdale will also be giving some lectures.
In addition, Drysdale said he was not sure how the class' grading would be handled by Aslam, adding that today's cancelled midterm exam may or may not be rescheduled.
The class will most likely still cover the same material that was initially listed on the syllabus, he said.
Drysdale added that he will speak with the registrar this week to request that students be given extra time to drop the class in light of the extenuating circumstances the scandal created, though Drysdale stressed that the decision is in the hands of the registrar.
"I would be very happy if the registrar would give people more time to make the decision," he said.
Student concerns
Students expressed both concern over what would happen in the course following Dwyer's resignation and relief that the scandal may soon be resolved.
One student said that, while he was pleased to see Dwyer go and that the test had been cancelled, he worried that his grade in the course might be impacted because he believes the other midterms may count more in light of the cancellation of today's exam.
Other students echoed the sentiment that they were pleased Dwyer would no longer be teaching the class.
For the most part, students contacted by The Dartmouth said the course has been poorly organized and were critical of Dwyer's handling of the course from the beginning.
Another student said that, while it was very late in the term, she was pleased to see Dwyer go, adding that since the allegations of cheating were presented, the dynamic in the classroom had been awkward.
The final class
Friday's class, the last taught by Dwyer, was described by students as a fiasco.
One student said the class was unlike anything she had seen before. She said that students asked Dwyer what would be on Monday's exam, but he responded that he had not yet seen the exam and they would be watching a movie that day.
She said he was carrying a stack of reports identifying students who had cheated, which he was turning in to Parkhurst, and that he left class to go to the administration building to turn them in.
The student said that Dwyer then threw down some other papers he was carrying and stormed out of the room.
The fate of 40 students
The alleged incidents of cheating have become national news after a story ran on the Associated Press wire last week and was reprinted in The Boston Globe.
Dwyer told The Dartmouth in an earlier interview that the media attention would not affect his handling of the situation, and that he would proceed with identifying the alleged cheaters.
Now that Dwyer has turned in the 40-some names to Parkhurst Hall it is only a matter of time before the administration takes action.
In an interview last week Undergraduate Judicial Affairs Officer Marcia Kelly outlined the process once the administration receives the allegations.
She said she would consider the reports given to her by the CS department and Dwyer before passing them, along with recommendations on potential courses of action, to Dean of the College James Larimore and Senior Associate Dean of the College Dan Nelson.
Nelson and Larimore will decide whether a hearing will be held before the Committee on Standards, the administrative body that would adjudicate the issue and potentially sanction the students involved.
Larimore told The Dartmouth that the issue would likely be resolved before the end of the Winter term.
"It would be a logistical challenge to arrange the hearing," he said, "but I think there would be a good faith effort to deal with it before the end of the term."
Larimore also said it is possible that hearings will be held for groups of people as opposed to holding more than 40 individual sessions.
Dwyer could not be reached for comment before press time.
