<p>I was recently accused of cheating on two of my common exams, and presented my story to one the faculty members, who seemed to understand that I was telling the truth, however, he then took the case to another faculty member( no doubt someone higher up on the food chain), and he was less beleiving. He told me there would be an "investigation" and that they would contact me again. For the record, I am telling the truth and did not cheat on either of the exams. Then this morning I received this e-mail from the Associate Dean Of Students: </p>
<p>You have been charged with multiple violations of the universitys academic integrity and professional conduct codes. You therefore must call the number below to have the secretary schedule a meeting with me. I have placed a hold on your record until that meeting occurs. You will not receive a grade for your course until this matter is resolved, and, due to the serious nature of the charges, you also face expulsion from the university.</p>
<p>What should I do now? Should I just plead guilty even though I am not, because maybe that will get me a lesser punishment. If I get expelled my life would basically be over, and if I plead guilty and lose the case, do you think I will be expelled? Please help!!</p>
<p>why plead guilty when you are not? Stand up for you beliefs. You have nothing to be ashamed of; you did nothing wrong and if the idiots who evaluate you conclude you did and expel you, it’s their loss. Perhaps then a college less quick to judge would hear your side of the story and accept you instead. But anyhow don’t jump to conclusions just yet; it’s only a hearing. My suggestion is you bring this to the parents forum for advice; a lot of those people are lawyers and such and can give you great advice.</p>
<p>I find that I am really, really curious as to what “your story” is.</p>
<p>But you shouldn’t tell me. Seriously. Even if you aren’t using a version of your actual name, you should not be having this kind of discussion online, or in public, or with people you don’t know. Think about it: what if you answered my implied question above and the faculty member you’ve already “presented your story” to Googles the details? This sort of thing has consequences, and you’re not nearly as anonymous online as you probably think you are. You don’t even know for sure that I’m not the Associate Dean of Students her- or himself. I’ve known people employed by universities who have griped about a situation with a student on an email discussion list, and who discovered that plaintiffs’ lawyers can subpoena those messages.</p>
<p>Go find whatever material you can find about the academic integrity and professional conduct codes and read it carefully. See what your rights are and what your options are. Consider finding an advocate, either a faculty member who believes you and will support you or a lawyer. Even if you are not allowed to have an advocate or lawyer in the meeting, they can be helpful. Unless you have an especially bad family, I hope you’re also talking to your parents.</p>
<p>But even if you are expelled, your life will not be over, basically or otherwise. It may be very different than you had expected and intended it to be, especially at first, and it may be very hard for you, again especially at first, but if you hang in there you will survive, you will find another path for yourself, and things will get better. I know this for a fact. And although I don’t know this for a fact, too, I think the odds are overwhelming that you will eventually be satisfied with how your life has turned out.</p>
<p>As for pleading guilty in the hope of getting a lesser punishment: don’t. Unless you did it (in which case I think the right thing for you to do would be to acknowledge what you did and live with the consequences) – and I don’t mean to suggest that I don’t believe you when you say you didn’t – do not plead guilty without being certain what you’re getting in exchange. Again, you should talk to a lawyer or other advocate (who knows what they’re doing, not just a friend or something) first.</p>
<p>Good luck. And if you want to come back here and tell us what happened once it is all over and broadcasting it over the internet can’t come back and bite you, I would love to hear about it then.</p>
<p>The only reason I think I should just plead guilty is because, obviously, since the faculty profesors reported the incident to the Dean, they did not believe me, and probably am convinced that I did it, and I’m just terrified that I might actually get expelled. What if the Honor committee thinks I am lying, too? If I plead guilty, will there be a chance to get my punishment reduced?</p>
<p>If you really didn’t do it then don’t plead guilty. Gather whatever proof you can and present it at your meeting. Tell the absolute truth about anything they ask. Contact your school’s free legal counsel or, better (and yes I know someone who has done this) bring a real lawyer to the meeting. This is not anything to mess around with and it is really hard to give you any specific advice without knowing the story, which you should not tell in an open forum.</p>
<p>To the question as to whether there will be mercy if you plead quilty the answer is most likely not. From the email you got you are accused of “multiple violations” and they are so serious that expulsion is the result if true. They are not telling you there will be mercy. They are telling you are gone if true.</p>
<p>If you didn’t cheat, don’t plead guilty. If you did cheat, plead guilty and don’t waste the faculty’s time and increase their anger with you.</p>
<p>I have been a professor and also headed my department’s committee that investigated cheating claims. I can not speak for what happened to you, but I do know that the cases my committee investigated were very clear cut even though the students kept saying they didn’t cheat.</p>
<p>For instance, one student had plagiarized by taking virtually an entire article from the Internet and trying to pass it off as her own work. The student told her friends and her mother that she was being unfairly treated by the committee because she hadn’t done proper footnotes. The student was lying about that. Literally – the student had copied an entire article and handed it in as her termpaper.</p>
<p>The student even brought in a lawyer and her mother. Lots of faculty members had to waste their time dealing with this, and eventually the student was permanently kicked out. If the student had just taken responsibility for her plagiarism, she more than likely would have been kicked out for a semester and allowed to return and graduate. Instead, her actions burned all of her bridges at that university.</p>
<p>anyways, i think the advice given so far here has been pretty good. also another thing to think about.</p>
<p>is it possible someone was cheating off you the entire semester then they ratted YOU out and claimed you were cheating off them? something to think about. i mean if they are saying you have cheated multiple times then it couldn’t have been just one instance. someone else must have tipped off the professor.</p>
<p>it sucks you’re going through this but definitely be prepared.</p>
<p>and just to reiterate what others have said, DO NOT plead guilty if you are innocent. you gain nothing by it.</p>
Usually an exam that is taken by all sections of a course. For example, a big university might have 10 sections of Calc 1, each taught by a different professor or teaching assistant. At the end of the semester all sections might take a common or departmental exam which is supposed to measure if students have grasped the fundamental concepts of the course. Sort of standardizes the course content and grading across different sections.</p>
<p>I don’t know why you would just consider pleading guilty when you said yourself that you’re innocent. Gives me the impression that you did cheat. </p>
<p>Good luck. </p>
<p>What is the moral of the story people? Look at your test paper or look up at the ceiling when taking exams. Then you know for a fact you did not cheat. Haha.</p>
<p>Don’t plead guilty if you are innocent! By the way, I know about these common exams. You cram a couple hundred kids (200 or so in my case) into an auditorium with 4 proctors to take a chemistry exam and with people crowded all around you (sitting within 1 feet of you), the temptation is there to take a peek at your neighbors exam. Just look at your own paper and ignore the people around you and focus on your own work.</p>
<p>I get the impression that you may have cheated in some inadvertent way and didn’t know it was considered cheating. Otherwise I don’t know why you would even consider pleading guilty – it’s not what one would typically resort to saying if they were genuinely innocent. </p>
<p>Just be honest and take responsibility for whatever you may have breached, but don’t go any further than that. Don’t try to game the system by pleading guilty to something you’re not guilty of, nor should you feign innocence if you have genuinely made a mistake somewhere. Pushing through the process quickly and honestly will help you the most out of all your options.</p>
<p>If you did cheat unintentionally, take responsibility for it and try to show that you take integrity seriously and that it was an honest mistake – perhaps suggest an alternative punishment to show that you are willing to accept responsibility, but that you feel something else would be more appropriate than expulsion.</p>
<p>But if you are truly guilty, you will make things worse for yourself if you outright lie. Professors/staff members are not stupid – if you were caught red-handed, odds are they have some pretty compelling evidence. Playing ostrich-with-your-head-in-the-sand will not work. Own up to your mistakes if you’ve made them, or things will become worse.</p>
<p>Of course, if you are totally innocent and did nothing wrong, push for innocence and don’t look back. It’s hard to say without knowing your situation, but I’m just trying to present all possible sides, here. My guess is that you brought notes to a closed-note test or were thought to be peeking on another’s exam (e.g. your answers match closely to the person who they think you were looking at to begin with, further substantiating their claim).</p>