Dental School Dismisses/Suspends 25 Students for Cheating, Reprimands Others for Keeping Silent
The IU School of Dentistry Faculty Council on May 4, 2007, voted to dismiss nine dental school students and to suspend 16 students for cheating, according to a statement issued May 7 by School of Dentistry Dean Lawrence Goldblatt.
The 25 students dismissed or suspended, all second-year dental students, were involved in the unauthorized acquisition, sharing and use of passwords to obtain access to exam materials prior to exams. Under the school's Code of Professional Conduct, these students have the right to appeal the council's decision within five working days of the notifications that were sent May 4.
The Council also voted to write letters of reprimand to 21 students who were not involved in cheating, but violated the Code of Professional Conduct requirement that any student who has knowledge of a violation, such as cheating, must report that violation.
"The faculty and administration of Indiana University School of Dentistry (are) deeply saddened and disappointed that this violation occurred and that this action was necessary," Dean Goldblatt said. The disciplinary actions taken are in keeping with the school's responsibility to maintain academic integrity and ethical professional conduct.
Goldblatt's statement, e-mailed to dental school faculty and students, follows:
In late February of this year it came to our attention that there may have been a violation of the school's Code of Professional Conduct by a substantial number of our second year dental students, the dental Class of 2009. This alleged violation involved the unauthorized acquisition, sharing and use of passwords to enter electronically locked image files meant only for examinations.
In accordance with long-established and published IUSD policy, a grievance was formally filed through our professional coduct process. This process involves a review and recommendation by the Student Professional Conduct Council and subsequently the (Faculty) Professional Conduct Committee, with the final decisions on sanctions made by the full Faculty Council. Due to the large number of cases that needed to be reviewed, this process took approximately two months to complete.
On May 4, 2007, the IUSD Faculty Council voted to dismiss 9 students, suspend from normal activity 16 students for periods from 3 months to 24 months, and to write letters of reprimand to an additional 21 students. The differing levels of sanctions correspond to differing degrees of violation of the code. The three-month suspension (7 students) will occur during the summer of 2007. The 12-month suspension (5 students) will be for the summer and fall of 2007 and the spring of 2008. The 24-month suspension (4 students) will be for the summer of 2007 and through and including the spring of 2009.
All students receiving suspensions will fail all modules in which the misconduct occurred, be prohibited from receiving honors, be required to complete a restorative justice process (an advanced course/experience in ethics/professionalism), be required to achieve 100% attendance in the Comprehensive Care clinics serving as chairside assistants, and be prohibited from normal clinical activities for the duration of their suspension.
Students receiving any of the sanctions listed above have the right to appeal the decision to the School of Dentistry Faculty Council Executive Committee. Such an appeal must be filed within five working days of their official notice of the sanction. The Executive Committee in turn must complete its review and decision on the appeal within 30 days of receiving it.
The faculty and administration of Indiana University School of Dentistry is deeply saddened and disappointed that this violation occurred and that this action was necessary. I wish to commend the entire IUSD family for their patience and professionalism which enabled this process to be completed fairly, completely and confidentially.
A second e-mail clarified the status of students who received letters of reprimand:
As an addendum to the statement I released a short time ago, none of the 21 students who received only letters of reprimand actually cheated (to the best of our knowledge); they were found to be in violation of only that portion of the Code of Professional Conduct which requires any student who has knowledge of a violation to report it. In other words, the 21 had knowledge of the event but did not report. Thus only the 25 who were either dismissed or suspended were determined to have actually cheated. I hope this is helpful in further understanding the situation.
|
