Cheating scandal.... at HARVARD???

[FerryFor50]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/basketball/ncaa/09/10/harvard-casey/index.html?sct=hp_t2_a2&eref=sihp

I guess it's official. Harvard has arrived.

[anon]

Let's be clear now: this is not a basketball cheating scandal. It is a cheating scandal. Over a hundred undergrads were implicated, including, as it happens, one varsity athlete (at least).

I would withhold any judgment of Tommy and his program as a whole unless we learn that they played any role in this whatsoever.

[FerryFor50]

Let's be clear now: this is not a basketball cheating scandal. It is a cheating scandal. Over a hundred undergrads were implicated, including, as it happens, one varsity athlete (at least).

I would withhold any judgment of Tommy and his program as a whole unless we learn that they played any role in this whatsoever.

No judgment here. Just find it ironic that as soon as a program starts to get better, this sort of thing occurs.

Certainly not implying that Amaker has anything to do with this. :)

[oldnavy]

Does anyone else find it a bit ironic that they were caught cheating in a class about our Congress?? Seems very appropriate and realistic to me... I mean if you are going to lie, make unethical deals, and take credit for what others have done, what better class to do it in???

They should get bonus points for insight into the subject.

[uh_no]

I think we need to withhold judgement here, as in all cases.

According to the students, the professor was extremely unclear on what the expectations are, test questions were extremely vague and students went to the TAs who spelled out the answers exactly. If there is such a breakdown in communication that TAs are providing answers to questions on exams that make no sense, I'm not sure the students will end up at fault.

As far as I knew, the whole thing was still under investigation.

[johnb]

This case is a debacle. The class appears to have been badly organized and permeated with miscommunication and poor teaching techniques. The TA's and the main professor were not on the same page, and expectations appeared to lack clarity. For example, the professor opened up the semester by indicating that this would be a very easy course and he expected everyone to get A's. He then indicated that everything was open book, take-home, and students were welcome to avail themselves of the internet, etc.

By the end of the semester,the prof provided a test that seemed ambiguous and difficult, and dozens of students went to their TA's for guidance about the questions, and some TA's would say nothing, while others would reveal accurate answers, while still others would provide answers that weren't completely accurate. Since a number of students would be in those rooms, writing down these answers, it's not surprising that their tests would appear similar. Further, they had an expectation that they would all be getting A's, and this appeared to evolve by the end of the semester.

This one basketball player is threatening to leave in order to retain his final year of eligibility. and 1 student does not a trend make. And it certainly says nothing about Amaker, except that if he knew there was a course where the prof was offering A's to EVERYONE, one can ask why ten basketball players weren't enrolled. As it stands, I'd imagine it was packed with pre-law students, whose careers will be completely derailed if they are kicked out of school for a semester.

While one can say this implicates 100+ Harvard students, it also indicates an academic environment that is negligent and haphazard. It's also a reason that while few students turn Harvard down, and most observers would say the Harvard undergrad student body is the most talented in the country, hardly anyone would say the actual teaching is as good as that at many other universities.

[flyingdutchdevil]

With an average grade of A- (thank you, grade inflation!), do kids at Harvard really need to cheat? That sounds a little redundant...

[hurleyfor3]

This case is a debacle. The class appears to have been badly organized and permeated with miscommunication and poor teaching techniques. The TA's and the main professor were not on the same page, and expectations appeared to lack clarity. For example, the professor opened up the semester by indicating that this would be a very easy course and he expected everyone to get A's. He then indicated that everything was open book, take-home, and students were welcome to avail themselves of the internet, etc.

I can't cast stones here considering a lot of what went on when I was at Duke. And not just on the Trinity side of things.

[FerryFor50]

I can't cast stones here considering a lot of what went on when I was at Duke. And not just on the Trinity side of things.

NC State, too. I remember a chemistry class where the professor told us to "give ourselves the grade we thought we deserved."

Me, being honest, gave myself a B. Idiot. :p

[burnspbesq]

According to ESPN, it just became basketball-related.

http://espn.go.com/boston/ncb/story/_/id/8365046/report-says-harvard-kyle-casey-withdraw-miss-season-due-cheating-scandal

[BD80]

NC State, too. I remember a chemistry class where the professor told us to "give ourselves the grade we thought we deserved."

Me, being honest, gave myself a B. Idiot. :p

You got what you deserved ...

[duke79]

Does anyone else find it a bit ironic that they were caught cheating in a class about our Congress?? Seems very appropriate and realistic to me... I mean if you are going to lie, make unethical deals, and take credit for what others have done, what better class to do it in???

They should get bonus points for insight into the subject.

LOL........SO true !! Being Harvard, this story will have legs, I'm sure. There was a long story on Bloomberg.com last week about this scandel. It may not be a cut and dry case of cheating. Apparently, this course has been known on the Harvard campus for many years as a "gut" course for those students who needed an easy course with little work and expectation of high grades. (And is it any wonder that "jocks" at Harvard, i.e., basketball and football players - and I bet hockey players too - migrated to the course?) According to the Bloomberg story, students who took the course in the past said it was common for the TA's to assist students with the take home tests and that students often collaborated on the test answers, so it was not uncommon for students to have similar answers to the test questions. Harvard may now have a difficult time claiming that students in the most recent class somehow "cheated" when they were doing what had been condoned in the past. At best, a gray area, and, given the implications for both current students and graduates, I'm guessing Harvard will sweep this under the rug.

[Atlanta Duke]

The New York Times ran a story on this mess several weeks ago - even before the basketball team was implicated this got front page schadenfreude because it involved Harvard students

My favorite nugget on the students spinning this into a story of victimization

The teacher, Matthew B. Platt, an assistant professor of government, told them at the outset that he gave high grades and that neither attending his lectures nor the discussion sessions with graduate teaching fellows was mandatory.

“He said, ‘I gave out 120 A’s last year, and I’ll give out 120 more,’ ” one accused student said.

But evaluations posted online by students after finals — before the cheating charges were made — in Harvard’s Q Guide were filled with seething assessments, and made clear that the class was no longer easy.:D


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/education/students-of-harvard-cheating-scandal-say-group-work-was-accepted.html