<p>From the Chronicle of Higher Education today:</p>
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<p>Not a bad idea, in my opinion. I just don’t get why an “upgrade” kicks in after two years so that the FD isn’t permanent. However, on a related note, it does concern me that many high school students head off to college not fully versed in what constitutes plagiarism. Sure, most know that they’re not supposed to copy straight from library books or buy term papers on the Internet. But, beyond these most obvious types of stealing intellectual property, many students don’t learn in high school how to properly footnote their writing to give credit for the ideas of others where it’s due, and thus they may be plagiarizing inadvertently.</p>
<p>I also think this “FD” sounds like a good idea. And I agree that I don’t see why it should come off their transcript. And have nothing to add beyond that.</p>
<p>I imagine that’s why it can only be given out by department chairs. This should only be used in flagrant cheating cases, or repeat offenders, in which case I’m 110% in favor of it.</p>
<p>Not sure why it disappears after 2 years either, though.</p>
<p>I think it should be permanent as well. If I were an employer who asked for transcripts, that’s something I would want to know about.
Might prevent another Janet Cooke event.</p>
<p>That looks fine and dandy on paper, but I hope that universities don’t wrongly accuse students of cheating just because it looks like they did. I doubt that would happen very often, but if something like this is shown on the transcript, it could be a problem.</p>
<p>It seems like they’re putting safeguards in to ensure that doesn’t happen. It’s pretty unfortunate to be falsely accused of cheating regardless if you’d get this or an F though.</p>
<p>Hmm, this seems kind of pointless to me. I figured most schools already put academic dishonesty on your record if you are reported to be cheating. Adding this distinction to a grade isn’t really going to matter, especially if it just disappears after two years.</p>
<p>And even if they did keep it, I would feel like FD was an upgrade from F. If an employer sees an F on your transcript, he’s not going to ask questions because he knows it means you failed. A lot are probably not even going to bother giving a chance for explanations. But when he sees an FD he’ll need clarification, and this is the chance for a student to lie and say someone stole their paper, handed it in, and both were reported for academic dishonesty. Or something along that lines.</p>
<p>“And even if they did keep it, I would feel like FD was an upgrade from F. If an employer sees an F on your transcript, he’s not going to ask questions because he knows it means you failed. A lot are probably not even going to bother giving a chance for explanations. But when he sees an FD he’ll need clarification, and this is the chance for a student to lie and say someone stole their paper, handed it in, and both were reported for academic dishonesty. Or something along that lines.”</p>
<p>In the current system, you could easily say the same thing if you got an F…</p>
<p>I don’t know, there are a lot of extenuating circumstances which can cause people to fail classes. I’ve known it to go from one person not getting the e-mail the final’s location had changed (apparently they weren’t put on the professor’s e-mail list) to people missing weeks of school due to illness or financial considerations.</p>
<p>Failing a class due to academic misconduct greatly cuts down the number of legitimate excuses.</p>
<p>Maybe, but I think that employers would be less inclined to ask about an F. It never looks good, even if there is an excuse for it.</p>
<p>With the FD, though, they’re probably going to think “what the hell is this?” and thus give the student an opportunity to explain, something they wouldn’t do for an F. Plus, the circumstances RacinReaver mentioned are things the student should be able to withdrawal from or else talk to the professor about.</p>
<p>Panther has a good point… I do sort of like the idea, though. Liked it plenty more until I saw that post!</p>
<p>The only possible reason I could see for it going away after 2 years is if they let minor things be the cause for an FD grade. If that makes sense. Like, if a kid seemed like he was glancing at someone’s paper during his final, and he gets an FD when he says he was just daydreaming, it doesn’t seem like something that needs to be around until you’re 60. I think the grade should only be reserved for real offenders, which would eliminate that need, though.</p>