Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: the Honor Code at UVA is a joke. When I was chosen to be a juror I went back and read all the cases for the past few years. I was amazed at what seemed to be the arbitrary nature of the decisions. The case I was a juror for during the past year was even worse.
A student was accused by another student of cheating on a final. I will use John Doe for the cheater’s name and Jay Doe as the student doing the accusing. The instructions for the final were that 1 sheet of scrap paper was allowed but nothing else was. Testimony was that the professor specifically instructed students that they could not have any phones out at all, not even to use as a calculator.
During the final Jay alleged that he saw John referencing multiple sheets of paper and accessing his phone screen numerous times. Jay went to the professor immediately after the final and reported the violation. Jay was seated 1 row behind John and about a foot above John’s height approximately 3 feet from him. When confronted, John denied cheating. During the discovery portion of the process John admitted to having a phone in class but said he could not have been accessing it because the screen was broken. He also denied having multiple sheets of paper. The Honor council investigated and found that it was ‘more likely than not’ that John had cheated and set the case for trial.
During the trial John testified that he had used his phone, but only as a calculator. Both sides agreed that neither student knew the other and had never had any interaction at all. They were even in different discussion groups and the accuser had to ask someone what John’s name was.
When it came time to deliberate we were supposed to use the ‘reasonable doubt’ standard. Over the 3 hours of deliberations there was much discussion and differing opinions. I can’t tell you how many times I heard: “It’s John’s word against Jay’s word”. There was also discussion about why Jay didn’t point out the cheating during the middle of the exam. I am not sure any student is going to interrupt their final,and chance not finishing or causing a major disruption, to go get a professor, and then to also publicly be identified as the accuser.
A few of us argued that even if you threw out every other piece of the testimony there was still the fact that John’s initial testimony changed from what he testified about in the trial. Since lying is just as much an honor offense we held out for expulsion. Past cases have seen students thrown out for lying about lending a meal card and lying about a grandparent dying.
In the end we could not get 8 of the 10 jurors to agree on guilt and John was found not guilty. There were a number of jurors who felt like because John had graduated before the trial that “we can’t take a degree away”.
I guess the moral of the story is that UVA students have free reign to cheat if they are a Fourth Year, or have graduated. Heck, we are basically free to cheat no matter what, because of the proof required. Lying can often be easily proven (ie my grandmother died, etc). Almost all cheating accusation cases have been cases of plagiarism or something else that is more easily proven. Actually cheat during an exam by looking at your neighbor’s answers or something similar and you are almost assured of being found ‘not guilty’. Most of us had no doubts at all about John’s guilt. A few people thought he was likely guilty. So instead of honoring our Honor Code we made a mockery of it.
Cheat on fellow 'Hoos!