Nearly half of the 125 implicated students in the May Harvard University cheating scandal were asked to temporarily withdraw from the university Friday, following an announcement from the university.
The announcement came from Michael Smith, Harvard’s Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, in an email statement after the final individual student cases were concluded at the end of fall 2012.
“Somewhat more than half of the Administration Board cases this past fall required a student to withdraw from the college for a period of time,” Smith wrote. “Of the remaining cases, roughly half the students received disciplinary probation, while the balance ended in no disciplinary action.”
The scandal broke after many students were accused of cheating on a take-home final exam given in May in a government course. Nearly half of the exams issued had strikingly similar answers, prompting the investigation.
Harvard University officials declined to comment.
While Harvard has refused to release the exact title of the course or the name of its professor, multiple news sources have identified the professor as Matthew Platt and the course as “Government 1310: Introduction to Congress.” The class was thought to have a total enrollment of 279.
Smith also detailed in his email how students would be refunded after being forced to withdraw mid-semester. Students that withdraw mid-semester must still pay $4,697 in tuition, as well as additional per diem room charges, pro-rated board costs and a student service fee, according to the Harvard student handbook.
Harvard has chosen to allow the students to withdraw, giving the students the opportunity to petition for reinstatement after at least one full term, according to the student handbook.
The University has also received criticism for not better protecting the identity of the students involved in the scandal.
Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry, seniors and men’s basketball team co-captains at the university, received widespread media attention, and multiple media outlets covered their decisions to withdraw from the team.
A number of other students involved with the scandal could not comment as they are still dealing directly with Harvard administrators.
Still, many details about the scandal remain unclear, with limited information coming from Harvard.
In his Bits and Pieces blog, Harry Lewis, Gordon McKay professor of computer science at Harvard, wrote about several other reports relating to the scandal.
“Reportedly the professor cancelled his office hours on the last day of the exam, leaving students who were puzzled about the exam’s unfamiliar terminology with no official representative of the course from whom to seek clarification,” he wrote in his blog Sunday. “The exam instructions said that except for its open-everything nature, it was to be treated like an in-class exam. But in an in-class exam there is always supposed to be a representative of the course staff available to answer questions. Why did the professor not hold his staff to the same standard about exam protocols to which he was holding his students?”
Lewis also wrote about reports that stated the professor had told his students the class would not be difficult.
“The professor announced at the beginning of the course that he didn’t care whether students attended class, and that he intended to give out a lot of A’s as he had in previous years,” Lewis wrote.
Smith said in his email Harvard is working to be more direct in the expectations of academic integrity required of all students.
“While all the fall cases are complete, our work on academic integrity is far from done,” Smith said.
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