A number of first-year graduate economics students may have cheated on a homework assignment, according to economics department Chair David Mills.
He declined to say exactly how many of the approximately 35 first-year students may be involved.
"More than one," student is involved, Mills said. "I'm still not certain as to how many."
The cheating allegedly occurred when a student discovered an online answer key to problems given out in a problem set and then shared the information with other students, according to an article from Inside Higher Ed.
The department has established a committee of three faculty members to investigate the matter. The committee is comprised of director of graduate studies Steven Stern and two other professors who have had "a lot of interaction with the graduate students," Mills said. At this stage, according to Mills, they have not yet established whether the alleged cheating occurred on a single assignment or whether it was a habitual problem.
According to Media Relations News Editor Kathleen Valenzi, the economics department and the College immediately contacted the Honor Committee with the news of the possible honor offenses.
"Honor was made aware of it," Valenzi said. The economics department has been "investigating and talking with Honor to see what the situation is in terms of rules and regulations."
While an individual department conducting its own investigation is rare, Honor Chair David Hobbs says he feels this specific situation does not circumvent the work of the Honor Committee.
Hobbs said he is comfortable with the economics department committee "as long as it acts as an evidentiary body and is just gathering evidence. It probably happens on an individual basis often -- an individual gathers evidence before they decide to bring a case to the Honor Committee."
Stern says that although the committee is conducting its own investigation, the intention is not to supercede the jurisdiction of the Honor Committee.
"We are in the process of investigating what happened," Stern said. "We're not making decisions about who violated the honor code and who didn't and we're not making decisions about punishments. We're talking to the Honor Committee to make sure that every step is within the letter and spirit of the way the honor system is done here."
Mills, however, says he believes the findings of the committee could later be used by the department to make various academic and financial decisions concerning students.
"There are a lot of things the department does collectively which makes having information on this situation important," Mills said. "There are issues of the students' grades in the specific course. There are issues of students' grades on other assignments that are not specific to the course but to the graduate program. There are issues of making next year's financial aid awards."
However, according to both Mills and Stern, the department's investigation does not rule out honor charges being filed in the fall. The Honor Committee does not investigate cases during the summer.
"We are looking for reasonable ways of dealing with it," Stern said. "We want to understand what happened, figure out ways to prevent what happened in the future. I think a reasonable way to deal with it is to expel students who cheated."
Mills agrees that honor charges could potentially be brought against some of the students.
"At the end of the day, if the instructor or someone else in the department or a student decides that the conduct warrants an honor charge," that is their decision, Mills said.
Mills says he believes the situation may result in some changes to the way instructors in the economics department give out assignments.
"It may be that structure of assignments for some of the courses will change," Mills said. "I don't think this episode should prevent us from giving out assignments that students work together on."
Historically, instances of cheating in graduate departments have been especially rare. In the past seven years, only 22 students in graduate and professional schools have been investigated, compared to 555 undergraduates, according to statistics on the Honor Committee Web site. Three graduate students left admitting guilt and six of the graduate investigations led to trials resulting in 2 convictions. In comparison, 76 undergraduates left admitting guilt, 182 stood trial, and 95 were convicted.
The alleged cheating in the economics department could be the second case of widespread honor offenses in recent memory. In 2001, Physics Prof. Lou Bloomfield discovered 158 cases of possible plagiarism in his introductory physics class, "How Things Work." The situation garnered national attention and resulted in 48 students permanently leaving the University. According to Hobbs, however, these economics department allegations are not an indication of increased cheating at the University.
"Cheating at U.Va. is still less than at other universities," Hobbs said. "What's going on here is going to be worked out. The Honor Committee is in place to work it out. Cheating is clearly something that's not accepted here"
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