HELP! 4.0 student falsely accused of cheating! Has been filed with the Academic Honesty office!

College Confidential Community
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Hey guys!
I am in a huge panic. I’m not sure what to do, as this is a very interesting situation. I go to school at the University of Georgia and we recently had a huge GroupMe chat for Chem 1212 (by huge, I believe it was slightly over 700 people), in which we reminded ourselves of assignments, helped each other study, and helped each other with problems we could not understand.

About 3 weeks ago, we had our lab notebook quiz and final for that class, and everything was fine until one student posted photos of the lab notebook quiz in the group chat on the first day of the final. Everyone, including me, left the group chat immediately because we did not want to be associated with this. As everyone went into panic, word got around, and even to our lab professor.

That night (Tuesday) she sent out an email saying she would be creating new questions for the notebook quiz because she found out the quiz had been leaked. (A quiz where we are tested on our recollection of data and what notes we have written in our notebooks during the labs, regarding molarity of compounds used, colors of solutions, and solution types used, etc). The exam was 10 questions where you had to write in the answer and what page of your notebook the answer was found in.

I actually took my exam on Wednesday, at around lunchtime. The TAs were on high alert of cheating and the TA examined my lab book, returned it, and I took my exam. I aced one of the finals, and have 100s on all of the quizzes, with As on all lab reports in the class. The kicker is that she only changed two questions on the actual exam, and now many of us are suspected of cheating.

Out of my group of friends, I know more than 10 people accused of cheating like this (and there were nearly 700 people in that GroupMe that I don’t know and haven’t spoken to about the incident). I know the number of accused is certainly at least 50, and very possibly is more. My guess is that about 90% of the students taking this final saw this exam as it was passed around immediately. I have many friends who did cheat who are in the clear, and I have several friends who did not cheat who are suspected of doing so as well, even though one of them had their exam the period before the answers were posted and another had his exam in the period during which the answers were posted). The basis of our accusation is “answers on the exam” and “Logs of the GroupMe chat” (On which I have posted, helping students, but nothing about this exam. I do know it said “(my name) has left the group chat” immediately after the exam was posted, between the other 300 other people who had already left and the hundreds that left after). She DOES NOT have anything else to use as evidence for or against my case as my lab notebook was not collected after the exam (even though some lab notebooks were on the Thursday and Friday of that week).

We are offered to just take a 0 on this notebook quiz (10% of our grade) by signing a document, which leaves me with an 84 in the class as I stand currently. I would take it in order to clear my name and have it over with as this professor is notoriously known for being the worst to deal with on ANY matter, let alone cheating, but I MOST CERTAINLY am not okay with cheating on my record as I did not cheat (In the email we received: “By signing the form, you agree that you provided and/or received unauthorized assistance on one or more quizzes.”). We are also given the opportunity to meet with the professor and a facilitator from the head of the academic honesty office and have a discussion if we believe that we are wrongly convinced, but I am afraid because this is a very serious accusation and I have almost no evidence to prove that I did not cheat, but I do have interesting debate points. I am currently trying to find my lab notebook where my notes are, but am not sure where it is as this exam was 3 weeks ago and I never imagined I would have this issue and need it again.

Some interesting debate points I have come across with my friends are, once she knew the test was compromised, why didn’t she change the exam as she promised? Surely some of these issues would arise as the exam was posted in a group chat of 700 people. Also, after reading that email, many students assumed “Oh, so these types of questions can be expected, so I’ll make sure I have these written down in my notes as well, just in case” and had them written down, earning them a spot of the accused list due to having similar answers or getting high enough grades (??) as well. Also, how can she accuse us of this without harder evidence against us, and how can she accuse upwards of 50 people of cheating??

The most worrisome thing is, my dream school is the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), to which I was waitlisted out of high school and dreamed of transferring into. I also planned on continuing my education with graduate school and am not sure how this accusation is going to affect me. As the title said, I am a star student, earning a 4.0 GPA last semester, including an A in Chem 1211 and Chem 1211L (which was taught by this same professor but I had a different TA who actually interacted with me) so it is not out of the ordinary that I would be earning As on my lab reports, quizzes, final, and notebook quiz. I am in a state of panic, can anyone offer up some advice? I am not sure what to do and I am not sure how they convict us of cheating without physically catching us cheating or having our lab notebooks as proof of having the answers written down.

My mind is full of questions. Should I fight it or sign this form (which I planned to, as long as academic dishonesty does not go on our record, which we will ask about on Monday when their office opens). Should I speak to a lawyer? What would happen if I fight this case and potentially lost? How would this affect my graduate school applications and transfer applications?

Thank you guys so much in advance! I know it was a very long post and I’d appreciate every tip and bit of advice!

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Also, how can she accuse some of us with evidence of “GroupMe chat logs” while letting hundreds go? The only evidence she has of most of us is that we were members of the chat. If that is her evidence, every one of the 700 students in that chat should be accused and penalized as opposed to some as they had the same “help” that we potentially had. Regardless, this is a very frustrating situation as few, some of which did not cheat, were accused while many people who did were let off with no penalties. Thank you all in advance again!

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You need to speak with an academic counselor, and possibly the ombudsman’s office for your school.

Schools can have subtly different standards for what constitutes “cheating.” The amount and nature of the “assistance” you gave to, and received from, other students may actually cross that line. I know that I have students who are sometimes under the impression that they can have other students correct their grammar on essays, for instance. They can’t, at our U. You need to find out exactly what lines need to have been crossed in order to find out whether what you did counts as academic dishonesty at your school.

You also need to familiarize yourself with the disciplinary process at your school. Is there an assumption of innocence, or guilt, when accused by a professor? Is there a formal hearing, peer review, or just a lone determination by a single Academic Discipline Officer?

Do not sign anything until you have those two pieces of information.

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@Nickst1996 I think @ProfessorD is giving you great advice. Just one thing to add:

Look at it from the accusing prof’s point of view for a second. Is there anything that you answered on the lab notebook quiz that you answered in a way that would be really unlikely UNLESS you saw that quiz before?

You do need to ask yourself if there is anything else in the Groupme logs from then or before that crossed the line for that or other classes. As professorD pointed out, the standards can be very different at different schools for what constitutes an acceptable level of collaboration.

I think that the fact that the lab notebook quiz was barely changed makes the evidence very flimsy against you and your classmates. If it is just a matter of looking stuff up in your lab report, I don’t understand how seeing the quiz ahead of time would have even conveyed such an advantage…

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Can you go see the TA you had last semester? If you interacted in office hours in such a way that they believe you are genuinely an A student, they may be willing to vouch for you as someone who could get such high grades without cheating. Me, I wouldn’t sign anything. I’d fight it if you really didn’t do it.

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Never admit to an integrity violation that you didn’t commit.
Your integrity is worth more than anything else.
Fight to your last breath.

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Be 100% honest, whatever that entails.

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The relevant person to contact at your school is in the ombudman’s office. Apparently you have ombudspersons!
Try to shorten your story to just the important details if you can.

http://www.uga.edu/ombudsperson/meet.html

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Thank you for all of the responses guys! The latest news is that if we sign this, it won’t go on our record and we just take the 0. We can also have a meeting with the professor and a facilitator from the office to have a talk and if we reach a conclusion, it will not go on our record. If we do not reach an agreement, then the punishment can be larger and it possibly could get worse.

To answer @inn0v8r’s question from earlier, the answers may be similar but I don’t think they were too similar. For example, most questions were recalling a color to which I know my answers differed slightly. The other questions asked us to recall molarities of compounds which were just numbers, usually written in the front of the lab notebook in the first place, and those are the numbers that I used (not sure about the other person’s answers there). I’m not too sure if the professor actually has the GroupMe logs because if she did, there was a bit more compromising information on many friends of mine who are out free. There is nothing on me because I was not very active in it. I had been once, but it was much prior to this incident and it did not have anything to do with tests, answers, or anything of the sort.

@ProfessorD, I have read the academic honesty rules and we are being accused of “Giving or receiving answers to an examination scheduled for a later time”. There is much wiggle room because we were expecting another exam to be written, and none of us who took the exam Wednesday and later saw the ACTUAL exam, with the 2 new questions. The previous one was leaked and some questions happened to be… the exact same.

@intparent I was considering seeing my TA because he knew me, and he knew this head of the Chemistry labs as he had to deal with her quite a bit. He was more of a friend than a teacher, he was a grad student and we participated in some of the same programs so we had a lot in common and are on very friendly terms. I see him around campus a lot and I was considering just asking him for some advice in this situation and on dealing with this professor.

I will look into the ombudsman, I didn’t even know this existed! I will keep you guys updated with new information, and I really appreciate the help! Turns out, we might not be very affected by this, but it still could cost me a letter grade in a 1 credit hour class.

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Don’t do it!

Integrity isn’t about who knows. It’s about your self respect.

You will always know that you were innocent and will always regret not defending yourself.

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@ClassicRockerDad I know, I don’t really like this situation at all. We are all fighting this, but no matter what, I’m very afraid of my record and having this on my transcript as it would get in the way of my goals in life (My major is Mechanical Engineering but UGA’s engineering program is not very established). I am definitely going to have a discussion with the professor and the facilitator, to fight it but we will see what happens. I am going to meet with the ombudsman and talk this situation through with her as well. Thank you for the tip though, I also am very concerned and do not want to sign this, but I’m afraid that I might have to in order to avoid heavier penalties.

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You did neither. It would be lying by signing the form. THAT would be dishonest.

You would be seeking some advantage by lying on this form to prevent unknown punishment for an offense for which you are not guilty of.

Fight!

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How do you know all but two of the questions were all the same if you didn’t look at the leaked exam? Whether or not the professor “promised” the exam would be changed, you should not be using leaked exams.

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You should not post anything related to the contents of the test here.

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Do you if anyone had a meeting with the professor and the facilitators?