As the Computer Science 4 cheating scandal continues to unfold, the effects are becoming more and more wide-reaching as computer science professor Rex Dwyer said he considers students who copied lines of code given to them by teaching assistants and graders to have violated both the College's honor code as well as course policies.
Dwyer said, while he did not consider those who received the solutions from the graders to have committed as serious a violation as those who deliberately downloaded the answers off the course's website, it is still a violation.
"I think the [cheating] standards I set on the syllabus were clear," he said. "Possibly the graders did something wrong, I'm not sure. If that's true, its unfortunate, though perhaps it's a mitigating circumstance."
"We disagree on that," said Chair of the Computer Science Department Scot Drysdale. "The students who got that help were not in violation of any Honor Code policy. That's my opinion."
Drysdale added, however, that he wished the students had not received the answers from the graders. "I wish some students had not received as much help as they did," he said.
Some students reacted to the news with surprise and anger, calling the professor's interpretation of the Honor Code incorrect.
One student who wished to remain anonymous said, "I think he missed the boat on what happened. People sought help from TAs and the TAs used the solution."
Others also complained that Dwyer was not making himself accessible to students this week, despite an upcoming exam and the serious allegations of cheating.
Dwyer has cancelled his office hours indefinitely in order to spend most of his time over the coming days attempting to sort out who may have cheated on the assignment. He also cancelled an x-hour scheduled for this afternoon and moved an exam that was to be held tomorrow to next Monday.
Dwyer told The Dartmouth the changes to the schedule were made in order to give him time to look into the scandal, and in his Blitz to the class he cited a need for extra time so that he could write the exam.
Both Dwyer and the students interviewed by The Dartmouth said today's class session, the first since Dwyer announced that he would begin investigation of allegations of cheating, went surprisingly well.
"The class was normal except for the very beginning," one student said. At the beginning of class Dwyer announced that he was doing everything possible to straighten out the situation and would be contacting students that would be affected as soon as possible.
The student did say, however, that the class was quieter than usual. Other students have in the past described the class as normally somewhat raucous and unruly.
Drysdale also commented on Dwyer's criticism of the CS department. Dwyer previously told The Dartmouth that his dissatisfaction with the department led, in part, to his requesting to be relieved of CS 15, another class he was teaching this term.
Dwyer told The Dartmouth that he requested to leave the class following student complaints about the staffing of tutoring sessions by TAs, adding that he felt the department did a poor job of assisting him in filling the positions.
Drysdale responded yesterday to the comments saying that there had been some confusion within the department at the beginning of the term with regards to the issue, but that the positions had now been filled and the situation resolved.
"I did not find out about this as early as I wish I had," he said. "I regret that it worked out the way it did ... he has a reason to be unhappy about it, we thought it had been solved but it had not."
Students in CS 4 were accused of cheating by Dwyer after several students allegedly accessed the solutions to a homework assignment on the class' website. Dwyer neglected to reprotect the portion of the site that contained the solutions following an in-class discussion.
According to Dean of the College James Larimore, students may face hearings before the Committee on Standards, the body that deals with all alleged Honor Code violations.
The CS department will first submit a report to Undergraduate Judicial Affairs Officer Marcia Kelly who will then pass the information, along with her own recommendations, to either Larimore or Senior Associate Dean of the College Dan Nelson.
Nelson or Larimore will decide whether the incidents merit hearings before the COS, which Larimore said would likely take place before the end of the term.
If merited, the COS would then hold hearings to determine whether the violations had indeed occurred and what appropriate sanctions would be for the nature of the offenses -- it may be possible, considering the number of people involved, that the hearings would not be held individually, Larimore said.
Potential sanctions range from censure to separation from the College, though there are several levels of punishment in between including probation and temporary suspension.
