Academic Cheating and Social Relationships

cghen
Sun, 23 Apr 2006 19:10:42 +0000

qx3kbenzene:

For cheating:
I guess what are the consequences if accused/guilty. Are you expelled permanently or given second chance? What are some of the harshest punishments the BoC would enforce?

So if a defendent is reported (either by a student, TA, or prof), there is a preliminary hearing by the BoC Chair and Secretary to make sure there’s enough evidence to bring the case before a full board quorem (7 voting members + 2 non-voting members). If that’s the case, and the board members vote to hear the case, then the board does a combination of a) looking through hard evidence, b) talking to the defendant, and c) talking to witnesses / TAs / profs to figure out what happened. If the board feels there is sufficient proof of cheating, the defendant is convicted, and will lose credit for whatever points were unfairly received.

The board then decides if the defendant will be a future risk to the Caltech community, which is an incredibly complicated decision (especially to explain in the abstract). Suffice to say that the board considers everything from the severity of the offense to the demeanor of the defendant to the circumstances under which the offense occured. Depending on this, the decisions can vary from mundane to practical expulsion.