Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Update

In case you were wondering the Ryerson student who faced expulsion over running the Facebook study group (I wrote about it here) wasn't expelled.

The disciplinary panel who ruled on his case said they had no proof that his facebook study group was used for cheating. His original mark in the course was reinstated although he is to get zero on the particular assignment associated with the study group, he has to attend a workshop on academic integrity and he is getting a disciplinary notation on his record which he can appeal. You can read the full article here.

My thoughts are the University isn't man enough to say we were being asses about this but they cant full well expel him so they are trying to save face by adding the disciplinary notation and giving him zero on the assignment. He'll take it and rightly so cause he doesn't want to be expelled but the University is still in the wrong here. Big bullies!

All in all just bad press for Ryerson in an age where the grab for students by Universities is an all out war. They ended up with egg on their face, in my opinion looking silly to potential students and parents of potential students (who sometimes have a say in where their kids go. Don't believe the hype Obay is real son!)

9 comments:

Amadeo said...

Big institutions can never just say, "Yeah, we messed up." even when it's just an employee.

Anonymous said...

tru dat. its a balancin act they pullin which shows they knew the student wasn't wrong. had they found against him he wudda been a goner.

Unknown said...

I agree with you Jdid, the University made a bad call and blew it out of proportion and now they, have to try to save face and not admit it when they were wrong.

Miz JJ said...

I didn't really follow it too closely, but I have friends who teach in academia and they have some stories to tell about students. I think a lot of them cheat. A lot. There is little academic integrity left.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

What do they mean, they had no proof that his facebook study group was used for cheating? The students didn't write each other's assignments, they didn't steal test papers, they didn't plagiarize information from the net...?

So if he didn't cheat why didn't they just let the matter drop.

Does this mean that students cannot discuss assignments, even in the library, under a tree, on the telephone?

Anonymous said...

Poor kid. I bet in the future when this becomes commonplace, the heads of that university will be the laughingstocks of the academic community.

Marc M said...

Hey Jdid, what's up? I agree with your sentiments about the Ryerson thing - here I'm assuming that the facebook group was analogous to going to a tutor for some help.

Shimada Boyce said...

I meant to comment on the original post and just got busy. I just can't imagine how you could even consider disciplining a student for using the tools that's available.

It's no surprise that the great work that's being done by universities are done in other countries. I realize this says more about the american government than schools but let's be real.

I'm just glad some sort of common sense prevailed.

Holla.

Crankyputz said...

pure stupeedness right there...