The Valley News was first. Then the Associated Press. The Boston Globe covered it as a front page story. And the Boston ABC and NBC affiliate stations reported on it, too.
The College's controversial decision to implicate 78 members of the Computer Science 4 class for allegedly cheating on a homework assignment has been widely reported by the national media, particularly outlets located in the New England area.
The effects of this coverage on Dartmouth's public image is, however, unclear.
"Both in terms of the academic dishonesty and in terms of the way the course was handled, it doesn't reflect particularly well on Dartmouth," Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg said.
He added, though, that the incident is not likely to affect enrollment patterns.
He said, "I don't think people will choose or shy away from Dartmouth because of this. These things come into the public consciousness and leave the public consciousness very quickly."
At public affairs, Director of News and Public Information Roland Adams said that his office is working with news organizations to help answer reporters' questions. When asked about the cheating scandal's impact on Dartmouth's image, Adams offered a mixed response.
"No one story tends to permanently elevate or sink an institution's reputation," he said. "But it has effects on perceptions."
Most prominent among the national media coverage was the Boston Globe's front page article on the cheating incident. The story, which ran in last Saturday's paper and was preceded by a less visible factual summary the day before, included interviews with Dartmouth students and faculty.
Members of the CS4 class were quoted as criticizing both former course professor Rex Dwyer and those students charged with cheating.
"From the beginning of the class, he kept mentioning that he heard Dartmouth students never cheat," Julie Greene '02 was quoted as saying in The Globe. "I think he wanted to prove people wrong."
The Globe reported that students gave Dwyer difficulties during class time, reading newspapers, passing around pornographic magazines, and ridiculing him for misspelling words on the black board. Eventually, the article reported, the class "devolved into a raucous setting of noisy conversations and sarcastic jeering."
The complexity of the cheating incident also came across in the story. Dartmouth administrators, for example, told the Globe that they doubted Dywer had deliberately sought to trick students, as some have suggested.
And Morgan Cain '02 told the Globe reporter that it was unclear if a large portion of the students charged with cheating were actually guilty. He said many students likely did little else than seek help from teaching assistants and complete the homework assignment with a group.
"It was a very hard assignment, and one that was probably above what most of us had so far been taught," Cain said.
--updated 3:39 p.m. 03/07/00
