Serious Moral Delimma

[ScienceGrad]

Greetings fellow grads. I was reccently made aware of a serious instance of violating academic integrity of a Biology class I TA'd for last semester. One graduate student (we'll call him Mr. Smith) for his recitation did the following: 1) Developed a systematic method of allowing the students in his session to raise their hand during the exam, he would quickly go over to them, and he would non-verbally aid them in telling whether an answer was correct or not and 2) Would attempt to memorize the questions from the exam when the supervising professor let the TAs proof-read the exam for mistakes and then go an review as much of the exact material that would be on the exam as he could remember during recitation.

 

This was apparently reported by another graduate studnet who noticed the during-test assistance (we were in two separate testing rooms and I was in another so I never saw it myself), and heard through students in other recitations that this particular recitation got a number of exact exam questions and went over them prior to the exam. The report was made to the professor in charge of this class after two midterm exams where this activity had contonued, however the professor in charge of the class was the PI of Mr. Smith...

 

During the final I recall the supervising professor being extremely strict and watching all of us like a hawk such that we were told not to say anything to any students when they had a question, however I didn't think anything else of it at the time. All of these students who were cheating all got A's or close to it in the class. I remember I was assigned to imput grades after the second midterm and Mr. Smith's students' average was on another planet compared to everyone else's recitations, so in hindsight combined with what I know now there was some serious cheating going on.

 

My questions is this: do I still have a responsibility to report this to the department chair? It seems the supervising professor was told of the problem and covered it up to prevent himself from looking bad (he will be up for tenure soon), and protect his graduate student. Furthermore, all of these students got away with blatant cheating on two out of three exams. Shouldn't they recieve an F in the class? Or is it just too late for anything to be done anyway (this was F13 semester)?

 

EDIT: I realize it is entirely possible the department chair was already made aware of the situation by the supervising professor and he decided this was the right course of action, but I am assuming for this scenario that is not the case.

Edited May 13, 2014 by ScienceGrad

[bsharpe269]

Ehh I would let this go. I get why it's frustrating and unethical but do you really want to get caught up in all of this department drama? If the Professor has an issue with it then he can report it.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Nobody likes a snitch. Unless you want to join a Buddhist monastery.

[gorki]

Contact your student ombudsman to discuss possible course of action. There's surely a way for you to inform the chair of the department without getting identified.

Edited May 13, 2014 by gorki

[Igotnothin]

Tough situation. Definitely easiest to ignore it, but I think the right thing might be to report it. I don't understand what the grad student's motivation is - just eager to please his or her students? Or is there some kind of incentive if your students do well?

[danieleWrites]

The problem is how to be fair to students. Certainly, we should expect them to realize that getting help during an exam and seeing questions beforehand is cheating. The problem is that the person doing the cheating was a teacher who apparently presented some of this cheating as part of the class itself. Did they earn the A the way that other students in other recitation sections did? No. Should they be punished for the cheating the teacher did? Did the teacher tell them this was cheating? Or did they expect this to be his teaching style?

Whether anything happened to the students is likely a decision made based on whether or not the students were, themselves, involved in the cheating, or if the TA was cheating and the students merely benefited. If a teacher does a review for a test and the questions on the test along with the correct answers are part of the review, can you reasonably expect students to know this is cheating? If the teacher instructs students to raise their hands for silent help during an exam, can you reasonably expect students to know this is cheating? While the answer to this might be yes (obviously, the teacher shouldn't point out the correct answers on exam day), the fact that it's the teacher doing it means that students should be given the benefit of the doubt as to whether or not they knew this behavior was unauthorized assistance.

Before you take this up to the chair or dean or provost or ombudsman, the question to examine isn't the student grades, but what happened to the cheating teacher. Was the teacher sanctioned in some way that is in line with the university's academic honor code? Does the teacher still have the assistanceship? Is the teacher still teaching? If the teacher was penalized in some way, then I believe (from what you've told us here) that the professor met his/her obligations regardless of what happened to the students.

If the gossip mill isn't clear on it, I'm brazen enough to go to the professor up for tenure and outright ask what happens to TAs that violate academic integrity for their students. I might even speak with the chair or some other prof who would be in the know that I was buddy-buddy with.

[gorki]

Before you take this up to the chair or dean or provost or ombudsman, the question to examine isn't the student grades, but what happened to the cheating teacher. Was the teacher sanctioned in some way that is in line with the university's academic honor code? Does the teacher still have the assistanceship? Is the teacher still teaching? If the teacher was penalized in some way, then I believe (from what you've told us here) that the professor met his/her obligations regardless of what happened to the students.

If the gossip mill isn't clear on it, I'm brazen enough to go to the professor up for tenure and outright ask what happens to TAs that violate academic integrity for their students. I might even speak with the chair or some other prof who would be in the know that I was buddy-buddy with.

You're sticking your head out much more by doing this kind of personal investigation than by going right away to competent authorities. Tell them what you know, they'll take it up from there.

[hashslinger]

You have no evidence that the professor did something wrong. You say "it seems" the professor "covered it up" in order to protect their own tenure situation and grad student. Where's your proof? Based on the language you're using here, I'd say you're just speculating. You are operating under the assumption that the professor is behaving unethically, and that might not be the case at all. For all you know, he or she has dealt with it with integrity and professionalism. Trust that they know what they're doing. Maybe the TA didn't get punished because he just made an error in judgment; maybe he is being punished and is in a world of shit right now.

 

If I'm going to speculate myself, I'm going to assume that they *have* dealt with it. No one's going to jeopardize their tenure over some stupid grad student. Give the professor the benefit of the doubt and move on.

 

No one likes a snitch; more than that, no one respects a conspiracy theorist. Go with the evidence: professor knows about the cheating; the cheating was stopped. The end. I'm not surprised that Mr. Smith's section ended up with higher grades: the professor could not take those grades away from those students because they didn't do anything wrong. *They* weren't the ones cheating.

 

Just let this alone. Do you really want to be known as the grad student who tried to cost Professor so-and-so his tenure? Or who tried to get Mr. Smith kicked out?

 

ETA: Oh, and if you do go to an authority, you better have more than a hunch. You better have a smoking gun. I wouldn't ever, ever go up against a professor in this kind of situation unless I had really hard evidence.

Edited May 14, 2014 by hashslinger

[TakeruK]

I agree with hashslinger that this is not a time for you to play detective or go on hunches. 

 

We all have a responsibility to uphold academic integrity and report something when we know there is a problem. However, we also have the responsibility to back up what we claim with evidence, not just speculation. To me, it sounds like the issue has already been reported and probably dealt with. So, I don't think there needs to be any additional reports unless you feel you have some evidence that was not known before.

 

At my school, there is actually an anonymous hotline for anyone on campus to anonymously report ethical violations. I am not 100% sure that encouraging us all to anonymous report anything we might feel is wrong is a great idea, but if something like this exists at your school, you can try to use it so that others can decide how much more action needs to be taken. 

[danieleWrites]

You're sticking your head out much more by doing this kind of personal investigation than by going right away to competent authorities. Tell them what you know, they'll take it up from there.

I agree/disagree.

I wouldn't recommend that people just trot up to a professor/chair and gossip. I would do it, but that's me. I have a position of privilege that the average grad student will never have. However, using the department gossip mill to find out if Mr. Smith is still around? It's not that difficult or dangerous.

I disagree that they should go right away to any authority over the issue. This is actually more of a stick your neck into the guillotine thing than doing a Get Smart routine in the department hallways. That's accusing the department of violating academic honor codes because a grad student who was not a part of the issue did not approve of how the issue was handled, even though it was clear that something was done about it. Sure, this can be done anonymously. But how many recitation sections for this particular course with this particular professor can there be? Eliminate Mr. Smith, and there are a handful of grad students suddenly under the microscope of suspicion. It's not that difficult to get the average person to confess; all it takes is being nice, polite, and authoritative in a personal interview. The only reason the OP thinks that people got away with cheating is because students in the section didn't fail the course even though the OP has not indicated that there's a reason to believe the students themselves knowingly colluded in the cheating, rather than the TA. The students not failing is not reason enough to assume ethical violations on the part of the professor. The TA not getting in trouble is. If the OP can't substantiate anything, or even give a reason to be suspicious, of the professor bending the rules for the TA then what ethical violations has the OP witnessed?

[hashslinger]

However, using the department gossip mill to find out if Mr. Smith is still around? It's not that difficult or dangerous.

 

 

It's not, but one can't really draw any conclusions based on his presence. We typically don't punish people publicly in academia, and often times "first time" offenders get off with no more than a warning. If Mr. Smith has been mum about it, and his adviser hasn't said anything, then you can't know if he's been sanctioned. His presence in the department might indeed indicate that the matter was swept under the rug. Or it could indicate that the professor and the chair were satisfied with giving him a warning. Or it could indicate something else, that there wasn't enough evidence or something, or there was enough doubt, or there was a technicality. (At my university, you can only punish someone for academic misconduct if you can prove before a judicial committee that they knowingly intended to commit an act of fraud. There's a reason why only the most obvious and glaring plagiarism cases get forwarded.) Or perhaps he's being monitored really closely right now. I have friends who got into some trouble with their teaching their first year; they didn't get fired but the supervising professor watched them very closely, sitting in on their classes and putting them through intense evaluations. My point is that you can't really draw any conclusions based on the fact that he's still there and teaching. Moreover, there's privacy to think of. Mr. Smith is still entitled to his privacy, even if he did something wrong.

 

Beyond all that, I'm not sure what the OP would do with the information if they discovered that Mr. Smith hadn't been punished to their liking. I'm also not sure that any TA is in a position to know what constitutes "appropriate punishment" here because we don't have all the information. Why did Mr. Smith do such a thing? Well, maybe he's got a mental illness. Maybe he just carried away in wanting his students to like him. Maybe he is indeed a sociopath who planned the whole thing. It's difficult to say because there didn't seem to be anything "in it" for him. It's not like these instances in K-12 where standardized test scores are tied to a teacher's employment status. 

 

I don't mean to make light of the situation--it sounds like it was pretty galling for all involved. But I think the OP needs to just be about their own business. This happened more than a semester ago and there's no way to change the outcome in any real, tangible way. Since the students weren't the ones perpetrating the academic misconduct,  their grades won't change. And Mr. Smith's punishment or non-punishment is Mr. Smith's business and not a matter of concern to another TA. The OP needs to worry about their own coursework and their own success in graduate school.

Edited May 15, 2014 by hashslinger

[TakeruK]

It's not, but one can't really draw any conclusions based on his presence. We typically don't punish people publicly in academia, and often times "first time" offenders get off with no more than a warning. If Mr. Smith has been mum about it, and his adviser hasn't said anything, then you can't know if he's been sanctioned. His presence in the department might indeed indicate that the matter was swept under the rug. Or it could indicate that the professor and the chair were satisfied with giving him a warning. Or it could indicate something else, that there wasn't enough evidence or something, or there was enough doubt, or there was a technicality. (At my university, you can only punish someone for academic misconduct if you can prove before a judicial committee that they knowingly intended to commit an act of fraud. There's a reason why only the most obvious and glaring plagiarism cases get forwarded.) Or perhaps he's being monitored really closely right now. I have friends who got into some trouble with their teaching their first year; they didn't get fired but the supervising professor watched them very closely, sitting in on their classes and putting them through intense evaluations. My point is that you can't really draw any conclusions based on the fact that he's still there and teaching. Moreover, there's privacy to think of. Mr. Smith is still entitled to his privacy, even if he did something wrong.

 

I strongly agree with this paragraph. It's not our job to make sure people are punished to our satisfaction. In fact, in a truly professional department, no one should ever know that Mr. Smith did anything wrong. This is a matter between Mr. Smith and the University/Department, not a matter concerning everyone. In fact, since the OP does not have all of the information, I think it would be highly unprofessional for the OP to start gossiping about Mr. Smith to his/her colleagues and/or complaining to others that cheating happened in that section. It's also damaging to the students enrolled in that section (since as others pointed out, they might have no idea that the TA was intentionally giving them test questions).

 

There is a reason that in some places, investigation of cheating takes place with a body completely independent of the professor and the TA. At my current school, if as a TA, we suspect cheating, we are supposed to report it to a University-wide body for investigation. We are not supposed to investigate anything ourselves, we are not supposed to tell the student that they are under investigation and we are not supposed to tell anyone else about it in case we are wrong (and also in case we are right). We simply just make copies of whatever documents are related to the event and forward them and the report to the investigating body. Those people figure out what to do, determine whether it is against the school's academic policies and take whatever action, in private, as necessary. As the TA for the course, we would very rarely know the result of the investigation--we would still enter the students' grades as if nothing happened and then the school will edit the grades as necessary pending the outcome of the investigation. Sometimes the investigating body might ask the TA or the prof for more information, but sometimes they will just thank us for submitting the information and then we will never hear of it again. 

[hashslinger]

In fact, in a truly professional department, no one should ever know that Mr. Smith did anything wrong. This is a matter between Mr. Smith and the University/Department, not a matter concerning everyone. In fact, since the OP does not have all of the information, I think it would be highly unprofessional for the OP to start gossiping about Mr. Smith to his/her colleagues and/or complaining to others that cheating happened in that section. It's also damaging to the students enrolled in that section (since as others pointed out, they might have no idea that the TA was intentionally giving them test questions).

 

I think this sums it up quite well. It's really unprofessional to gossip about another TA, even if you know for a fact that they have conducted themselves unethically. It's one thing to ask casually, "What ever happened to Mr. Smith? I haven't seen him lately." It's another thing to roll up and ask about someone's cheating or academic misconduct, especially if you're privy to the information because you were the other TA in the course. At my school, we also aren't allowed to discuss a student's plagiarism case (or its outcome) because of privacy issues. I assume that TAs, as students, are protected under the same rules.

 

Some schools have different protocols when it comes to academic misconduct. At my current school, a TA or professor isn't allowed to give a failing grade for plagiarism or cheating, even for one small assignment--that's for the board to decide. As TakeruK said, you just forward the information to the board and they examine the evidence and make the decision. It's not up to you how or if they're punished. You just present the evidence, no editorializing allowed.

 

At another school I attended, cases of academic misconduct were handled at the discretion of the instructor. You could decide whether or not to fail someone for the assignment or for the course while keeping the decision "in house" and not involving the authorities. Or you could forward their case to the board and fail them at the same time. (This was viewed as a much more extreme measure as board cases left a black mark on the student's transcript.) At that school, it wasn't uncommon for people to just handle academic misconduct on their own--either by failing a student, failing their assignment, or forcing them to do the assignment over again.

 

In any case, academic misconduct is between a student (or, in this case, a TA) and the professor and whatever authority. No other TAs need to get involved unless they have new information.

Edited May 15, 2014 by hashslinger

[kateausten]

I see little for the OP to gain by reporting or lose by not reporting, so I too am on the side of "don't."  If you A) did not witness the cheating and are aware that another student reported it to the professor, your butt is covered.  To your knowledge, the supervising professor was made aware of the situation by someone with more personal knowledge of the incident than yourself, and your responsibility ends there - you have "plausible deniability" here and won't be held responsible for ensuring that the professor does his job ethically.  If you do go above the professor's head with your suspicions, you'll likely be seen as untrustworthy, someone who will throw colleagues under the bus before even approaching them about your concerns.  If it's really killing you, and you have to do something, ask the supervising professor what came of it, but I don't see any reason to do that.

 

This sounds like a situation that literally can't be resolved in a way that's fair to everyone.  In a way, handling it as quietly as possible is the only clear choice for the department, because if word got out about it there would be many angry students and no fair way to appease them.  Yes, it's unfair to the other students that these students got higher grades because of an advantage they didn't have.  However, they shouldn't be punished for trusting their instructor - by getting Fs or by being forced to repeat the class.  Nothing he did is inherently dishonest, it's only considered "cheating" here because the other TAs were not allowed to do the same thing, which the students didn't necessarily even know.  A lot of instructors give reviews that are very similar to the test.  The test answer system would be weird but not "dishonest" if it were available to every student in the class.  Students shouldn't be punished for 1) not knowing the difference between a TA being particularly nice/"easy" and a TA cheating, or 2) being afraid to report someone who has power over them for something they can't concretely prove.

Edited May 15, 2014 by kateausten