What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Virginia
Long one here..apologize in advance!
Student went back to state supported public institution to get an advanced degree. After trying to resolve a communication problem with the professor the student had reached an impass and decided to take problem to the Dean in the middle of the semester. At the end of the class / year professor accusses a group of students of cheating & copying each others works and papers of which this student was deemed the "ring-leader" by the professor.
5 works in "question". 4 tests which consisted of multiple choice, open book, open notes, take home exams. 1 "paper" which was a critique of an article which had a predetermined layout to a set of questions given by the professor. Professor charged the group with cheating on all 5 works at the end of the semester preventing the student from graduating and costing student promotion at work place (had to have the advanced degree to hold position) as well as the tuition reimbursement from employer.
Details. Only one of the 5 grades were the same for the group of students, on one of the tests. All other grades were different (the balance were right on the class average for the entire classroom as was the grade the group had the same). After the accusation was made student sought professional opinions and had 2 Professional Independent Consulting Agencies perform Statistical Analysis. Both reported the same thing, absolutely no indication, not even a hint, that "group" did anything different then the entire class. 2 different recognized scientific theorems were used to establish that fact (both used in courts of law). Received an analysis from a Head of a seperate University Statistical Department that the professor could have choosen any subset of students and try to imply they "cheated" as everybody in the class answered the vast majority of the questions (right and wrong) the same way. Additionally the professor in question did not examine the entire class data until AFTER presented with these reports. Both agencies that did reports said the professor committed several CARDINAL sins of statistic's and acted recklessly in the accusations.
On the critique the professor admitted they did not even read all the other papers to determine if there where similarities. Professor admitted the TA graded "some" papers, they graded "others". Professor runs a plagiarism computer program on the group of papers to determine the level of cheating...however they refuse to run the entire class. After petitioning school to release the other papers they were run in the computer and the majority of "non accussed" papers had MORE similarities between them then the accussed papers!!!!
After thousands of dollars in "defense" and roughly a year later student is found not guilty of all charges. Under the system the student still had to petition the professor to get the grade changed and ultimately the dean interviened and changed the grade. Then the school says since the student has been out so long on what they call "leave of absence" to get the degree student has to pay $125.00 to "enroll" to get the degree.
Couple of problems I am having with this. Under the schools system the professor is obligated / mandated to initiate honor charges at the time of the offense..yet the 5 charges were not made until the end of the year. Have been told that since student was found not guilty the "System" worked and we have no legal grounds after that. 2 outside independant agencies said professor (who claimed herself as expert witness at trial for statistic's) violated almost every tenent of statistic's and her charges would be considered reckless and entirely negligent in academia and legally.
If I am not mistaking (and I might be) Lawyers, Doctors, etc have MINIMUM standards of conduct they must meet or could be held liable. How can college professors be exempt from this same standard??? We are of the opinion the professor acted out of contempt for student for taking complaints to the Dean. Clear from the evidence in the trial and outside reviews the professor clearly acted with disregard to any academic standards before making accusations. The professor used the system as a weapon. We have volume's of data to show this and after the hell we've been thru the professor still has the capability to use the system as a weapon against other students they disagree with. Am willing to try to ensure they don't get another opportunity to try and ruin another students life.
Any comments / suggestions or is our information that there's nothing we can do about it accurate?
Long one here..apologize in advance!
Student went back to state supported public institution to get an advanced degree. After trying to resolve a communication problem with the professor the student had reached an impass and decided to take problem to the Dean in the middle of the semester. At the end of the class / year professor accusses a group of students of cheating & copying each others works and papers of which this student was deemed the "ring-leader" by the professor.
5 works in "question". 4 tests which consisted of multiple choice, open book, open notes, take home exams. 1 "paper" which was a critique of an article which had a predetermined layout to a set of questions given by the professor. Professor charged the group with cheating on all 5 works at the end of the semester preventing the student from graduating and costing student promotion at work place (had to have the advanced degree to hold position) as well as the tuition reimbursement from employer.
Details. Only one of the 5 grades were the same for the group of students, on one of the tests. All other grades were different (the balance were right on the class average for the entire classroom as was the grade the group had the same). After the accusation was made student sought professional opinions and had 2 Professional Independent Consulting Agencies perform Statistical Analysis. Both reported the same thing, absolutely no indication, not even a hint, that "group" did anything different then the entire class. 2 different recognized scientific theorems were used to establish that fact (both used in courts of law). Received an analysis from a Head of a seperate University Statistical Department that the professor could have choosen any subset of students and try to imply they "cheated" as everybody in the class answered the vast majority of the questions (right and wrong) the same way. Additionally the professor in question did not examine the entire class data until AFTER presented with these reports. Both agencies that did reports said the professor committed several CARDINAL sins of statistic's and acted recklessly in the accusations.
On the critique the professor admitted they did not even read all the other papers to determine if there where similarities. Professor admitted the TA graded "some" papers, they graded "others". Professor runs a plagiarism computer program on the group of papers to determine the level of cheating...however they refuse to run the entire class. After petitioning school to release the other papers they were run in the computer and the majority of "non accussed" papers had MORE similarities between them then the accussed papers!!!!
After thousands of dollars in "defense" and roughly a year later student is found not guilty of all charges. Under the system the student still had to petition the professor to get the grade changed and ultimately the dean interviened and changed the grade. Then the school says since the student has been out so long on what they call "leave of absence" to get the degree student has to pay $125.00 to "enroll" to get the degree.
Couple of problems I am having with this. Under the schools system the professor is obligated / mandated to initiate honor charges at the time of the offense..yet the 5 charges were not made until the end of the year. Have been told that since student was found not guilty the "System" worked and we have no legal grounds after that. 2 outside independant agencies said professor (who claimed herself as expert witness at trial for statistic's) violated almost every tenent of statistic's and her charges would be considered reckless and entirely negligent in academia and legally.
If I am not mistaking (and I might be) Lawyers, Doctors, etc have MINIMUM standards of conduct they must meet or could be held liable. How can college professors be exempt from this same standard??? We are of the opinion the professor acted out of contempt for student for taking complaints to the Dean. Clear from the evidence in the trial and outside reviews the professor clearly acted with disregard to any academic standards before making accusations. The professor used the system as a weapon. We have volume's of data to show this and after the hell we've been thru the professor still has the capability to use the system as a weapon against other students they disagree with. Am willing to try to ensure they don't get another opportunity to try and ruin another students life.
Any comments / suggestions or is our information that there's nothing we can do about it accurate?
