As a parent of a college senior, I am perplexed about suspected cheating in her engineering classes. She takes her exams at the disability resource center. However, when she returns to class, her friends tell her about wide spread cheating during exams. Some of her friends even admit to cheating. She talked to the professor and department chair. They said she didn’t witness it so they don’t believe her. Now she is the trouble maker. I called the engineering department and they didn’t care either. I contacted the office of integtity and conduct and never heard back.
I’m not a person who likes to police others, but the cheaters are making the curve so high that honest students get much lower grades as a result.
My second child is planning to attend the same college, but in a different engineering major. I tried to convince him to go to another school, but he refuses.
How do I keep a positive attitude towards this highly known engineering school in So. Cal? Why do colleges look the other way with cheating? Why do the honest people get labeled as problems when justice is not done right?
She can’t report cheating based on hearsay, nor can you. If she witnessed it first hand on tests, then she would have more standing to report it. Unless someone in the class reports it, she is probably out of luck. You could tell us what the college is – might stir up some discussion around here among posters (and their kids). Why protect a school that can’t manage that issue?
They don’t look the other way but hearsay isn’t good evidence. Cheating is a very serious charge at colleges and they’re not going to charge a student with cheating just based on something someone said.
YOU shouldn’t be calling at all. Your child is an adult… butt out.
What do you expect the school to do if it has no proof? Accuse and then punish students anyway?
You as the parent should absolutely not be calling. And if all your daughter has is hearsay then she’s got nothing to report either.
Now turn the table around. If someone accused your D of cheating without witnessing it, and the school believed the accuser, how would you feel?
I don’t know if they really don’t care. But this is another hearsay (you didn’t witness it). They can’t do anything based on hearsay.
Why did you call? Your D couldn’t act on her own behalf?
Think of the US court system. One is presumed innocent unless proven otherwise.
Not sure how they were cheating. But most cheating in college short of stealing the test or plagiarism is some sort of collaborative effort among students. Very hard to prove or it involves so many students that it is prohibitive for the University to pursue the issue.
I would be curious to know how they were cheating.
I think it was a mistake for you to make the phone calls.
the parent of a college senior should NOT be the one to call the engineering dept or office of integrity and conduct regarding reports of cheating by other students- student should be the ones to do so- not their mommies.
That is why you were ignored. It was not your place to call, no matter how frustrated you were.
Your DD is now an adult.
What she hopefully has learned for the future- if she does not have direct knowledge of an incident- not gossip -then she should think twice about reporting it, but instead encourage others who actually witnessed the cheating to report it.
Colleges expects that adult students will be the ones to report behavior by either students or faculty that does not follow the code of conduct.
You need to park the helicopter.
As for your DS, this is a life lesson for him to learn, that regardless of where he goes to college , kids will cheat. It happens at Harvard. It happens where ever students think they can get away with it.
1 If he see the cheating he should report it IF he has proof. period. But he may find that reporting it has consequences , as your DD found out.
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2- That kind of behavior will eventually come back and bite the cheaters in the butt.
You should not be calling anyone. Nobody should act on hearsay.
If I was working at that school, I would want to know even if it is just hearsay. They obviously can’t prosecute anyone, but they can pay better attention and put in place better securities to prevent cheating. They can also address the student body about cheating in general, how it is wrong and how it will be dealt with. As someone said in another thread - doing nothing in the face of something wrong is wrong itself.
The Mom shouldn’t call the school about it unless her daughter is being adversely affected by having blown the whistle. If the Mom feels that the daughter is now perceived as “the trouble maker”, then she should call.
The honor code is taken very seriously at Michigan both in engineering and business since it was implemented over 100 years ago. The professors leave the class during exams but are nearby to answer questions. I have heard of cheating resulting in expulsion and students are warned during orientation about the severe consequences. I experienced a similar honor code at Georgia Tech. If we can’t trust the engineers, than who can we trust?
I’m not sure why the OP was involved, that is not her fight.
Ok, @Sweden12 Now I’m just curious, how were they cheating? And why does your daughter not take test with the class?
^^ she answered that in the original post.
“She takes her exams at the disability resource center.”
Not that it is really relevant to the discussion, but if someone admitted directly to the daughter that he/she cheated, that’s not considered hearsay (if the daughter reports it), at least from a legal perspective.
What rude comments. My daughter was accused of a horrible event at school and I had to get involved. I consulted a lawyer to protect her integrity. She was accused of something she didn’t do. The chair didn’t get her side and ruled against her. It was here say. She was not accused of cheating. I’m am saddened by your comments.I’ve had to get involved to protect her rights because she has cerebral palsy. If I had listened to people like all of you through out her life, she would still be in a wheel chair. I will never post here again. By the way, it’s Cal Poly Pomona. Good luck to all if you and I wish I had never had a child with cerebral palsy. Try a day in my shoes! All of you have kids who can walk without assistance and don’t need help to drive. I can’t believe how your comments hurt when I only tried to give my daughter a normal life like your kids.
A sad mom who only wanted to help give a normal life.
Wow… that escalated quickly.
I have two family members with CP. I know first hand how much it can affect one’s life. I’m glad your daughter has seemingly overcome many obstacles, but we can only respond to what you wrote.
I wish your daughter the best.
Closing thread. Talk about facts not in evidence! Nothing the OP tells us in #14 was presented in the original post, so it is very unclear what she expected anyone to be responding to.