A staggering one percent of Harvard undergrads have been caught up in a cheating scandal and forced to withdraw from the university, at least temporarily. But given the subject matter of the class they were cheating in, it seems to me like they aced the final exam:
Approximately one percent of Harvard’s undergraduate body was forced to temporarily withdraw from the College last fall, largely in connection with the massive Government 1310 cheating scandal, Harvard indicated in an announcement Friday morning.
In an email sent to the Harvard community, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith wrote that “somewhat more than half” of cases heard by the College’s Administrative Board last fall resulted in forced withdrawals…
About 125 of the cases heard by the Ad Board last fall were those of students implicated in the scandal, which was unearthed after assistant professor Matthew B. Platt reported suspicious similarities on a handful of take-home exams in his spring course Government 1310: “Introduction to Congress.”
After this initial tip-off, the College launched an investigation that eventually expanded to involve almost half of the 279 students enrolled in the course.
What better introduction could they possibly get to Congress than a cheating scandal? They’re much better prepared for a career in politics than the students who didn’t cheat.
About Ed Brayton
