Academic Integrity Issue and PhD Application

College Life
1

I am recently involved in an academic integrity issue. I was accused of unauthorized collaboration during a final exam last semester (almost 3 months ago). My professor said this assessment is based upon unusual correlations between my exam answers and those of another student. I had no knowledge of this until the professor revealed it. I swear I did not collaborate! He also said that even if the other student copied my answer and I was not aware of this, I still violate the rule. He said he believed that I did not need to cheat because I am the No.1 student in the class, but he thought I was helping the other student. I am not able to prove I did not do it.

My professor gave me two options.

  1. Sign a form admitting I collaborated and retake an exam, and he will forward the agreement to Student Affair Office and I will have a record of violation. The new exam score will be used to determine whether my final grade for the course needs to be adjusted. I am confident I can get a great score and still keep my grade (A).
  2. Refer to Student Affair Office. The sanction by Student Affair Services may be more severe than his proposed sanction, and possibly lead to a zero on the final exam, a reduced course grade, etc. The case seems to be strong against me since I am not able to prove my innocence.

Which one should I choose? I did not want to sign the form since I did not do it, but if I accept it, I can keep my grade. On the other hand, it is very likely that I will get a violation record if the case were referred to Student Affair Office, i.e. I will get the record either way.

Things are more complicated because I applied to graduate school this year and have already had several offers. At the time I did my application, I was not involved in this issue. Do I have an obligation to notify the programs of my current situation? This issue will not be resolved until April 15th --the deadline I need to decide whether or not to accept my offers. I personally prefer to let them know because I think this is the right thing to do, but I am also afraid that they will recall my offers.

I am helpless right now. I will appreciate if anyone can give me some advice!

2

No, you don’t have an obligation to notify your graduate departments about this unless you signed some agreement saying that you would. I also don’t think it’s unethical to not tell them. After all, you didn’t cheat, and it could turn out that nothing happens to you. Just deal with this at the school level; there’s no need to jeopardize your future for this.

Personally, if I didn’t cheat I wouldn’t sign any papers saying I cheated and I would vigorously and vehemently defend myself. If your college indeed has a rule that if someone cheats off you without your knowledge that you are still in violation, that’s a stupid rule and it needs to be changed. How on earth are you supposed to control anyone else’s behavior? I think it’s more likely that your professor has misunderstood or misinterpreted the application of the rule.

So no, personally I would insist to the professor that I didn’t cheat and that I won’t be signing any papers that admit cheating that I didn’t do - not because I want to avoid retaking the exam but because I didn’t cheat and I don’t want inaccuracies on my student record. You might want to talk to someone in student/judicial affairs to see the likelihood of winning your case and what the official sanctions would be. (If it really did look like you were getting a sanction either way…well, then you would have to do what you think is best. Personally I would rather get a lower grade than admit to cheating that I absolutely didn’t do, because I am not a cheater and I would be outraged if a professor accused me of it. But, I will admit that the more practical decision is probably the one that will preserve your grade.)

Also, what’s up with the professor coming forward with this 3 months later?! There should be like a 1 month statute of limitations on this kind of thing.