The Committee on Standards will begin its many hearings on the alleged CS cheating scandal tomorrow and some of those implicated may find out their fates before the end of this term.
Hearings for the students in the Computer Science 4 scandal will continue until Thursday of this week according to Undergraduate Judicial Affairs Officer Marcia Kelly, with only three days of hearings scheduled for this term due to finals period. The rest will be held during Spring term.
"We don't normally run hearings during reading period and finals," Kelly said. She cited the extremely large number of students involved as the reason hearings will be held differently this time.
Kelly also said the hearings would be closed to the public, though students may choose to request open hearings.
Kelly said students not heard this term will begin taking their classes in the spring, but they will not be permitted to officially register until they have been heard by the COS and their fates are determined.
She added that the College will waive all fines associated with late registration if the students are eligible to register after their hearings, otherwise the students' tuitions for Spring term will be refunded.
If suspensions result from the hearings they will begin Spring term, regardless of whether the sanctions are decided in the hearings this week or next term, she described. Students who begin next term at the College would simply leave if they are suspended after the beginning of classes.
Kelly said she only expects hearings to be held at the committee's traditional times -- Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
There are 12 student members of the committee and only two or three hear each case, along with an equal number of faculty members.
"If the person is in the class, I don't consider that person eligible to serve," she said. Ideally Kelly said she hopes to have as few different members of the COS as possible work on the case.
"There will be a little variation" in who hears the various cases, she said. "However, we have the element of having to bring people up to speed on the details of the case."
Kelly declined to disclose how many students from each class year were involved in the scandal, saying only that the breakdown of students who cheated "cuts across all classes."
She also said the administration was currently in the process of grouping students with like cases in order to hold group hearings, but said they were still in the preliminary stages of the process.
Students may also still receive credit for CS 4 at the discretion of the professor, she said. In the past some professors have given students a zero for the course, while others have simply given a zero for the assignment in question.
