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Harvard Crimson 2012-2013

Veritas said:
I have been following the Government 1310 thing from the beginning and it certainly involves far more than just athletes. Blaming the coaches seems way off the mark.

My understanding is that the instructor was fairly new to Harvard and gave an exam as a take home and open book, internet sources OK, joint study guides OK, just no collaboration on the exam. The instructor should have some of the blame for the situation as that is a bit loosey-goosey to me.

Another problem is that FAS was aware of this sometime in May and apparently sat on this over the summer due to the availability of people needed to deal with in (instructor, Ad Board etc) I understand that some students, told their exam was the object of investigation, took leaves of absence before the investigation was completed as they did not want to be at Harvard past the deadline for tuition refunds.

There is quite a bit in the Harvard Crimson on this including:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/9/1/ad-board-accused-students/

As Alslammer said above, it would e hard to tell if the allegedly plagiarized bits came after the exam was distributed or the notes and study guides prepared before the exam was distributed.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of people in the position to teach give in to their students because they want to be nice but do know or notice (when they were on the other side) that students are schemers.

I would never give students that much license unless I was at a service academy... And even then I would be leery.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2012-2013

Veritas said:
I have been following the Government 1310 thing from the beginning and it certainly involves far more than just athletes. Blaming the coaches seems way off the mark.

My understanding is that the instructor was fairly new to Harvard and gave an exam as a take home and open book, internet sources OK, joint study guides OK, just no collaboration on the exam. The instructor should have some of the blame for the situation as that is a bit loosey-goosey to me.

Another problem is that FAS was aware of this sometime in May and apparently sat on this over the summer due to the availability of people needed to deal with in (instructor, Ad Board etc) I understand that some students, told their exam was the object of investigation, took leaves of absence before the investigation was completed as they did not want to be at Harvard past the deadline for tuition refunds.

There is quite a bit in the Harvard Crimson on this including:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/9/1/ad-board-accused-students/

As Alslammer said above, it would e hard to tell if the allegedly plagiarized bits came after the exam was distributed or the notes and study guides prepared before the exam was distributed.
Click to expand...

As for "fairly new" I took the course my sophomore year, or Spring 2010. Course was first offered my freshman year in 2009. I know because I shopped it in 2009 when the professor was completely new and the class had about 9 people show up and the professor tried to start on the hour (not realizing the official unofficial rule is that classes start 7 minutes past the hour, to allow people taking back to back classes an actual chance at showing up "on time".) Boy was I shocked when the class was in the 200+ student range when I shopped it (and ultimately took it) again in 2010.

I actually enjoyed the class material itself as a bit of a government nerd...the professor is extremely knowledgeable on the subject. That said, that it took until 2012 for something like this to manifest is actually more shocking to me than the fact that it happened.

Finally, as was said above, to blame the coaches in this situation is absurd. There were athletes from many different teams, men's and women's, as well as plenty of non-athletes. This is not something where every year students are being lost to academic fraud. It's one incidence in which much of a class year got caught up in a scandal with 120 other Harvard students.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2012-2013

Here are a collection of vignettes that illustrate how haphazard the question of "cheating" at Harvard has been over the years:

c.1951 Teddy Kennedy hires somebody to impersonate him and take his Spanish exam. This becomes the Gold Standard of cheating, on the lines of Dave Cowens telling the referee "do you want to see what a foul is really like? Here!" walks over to the bench, throws an opposing player to the floor and says "now that, that would be a foul."

1963 Watson Rink gets C's in German, doesn't cheat, feels self-righteous compared to Teddy Kennedy

1966 Watson Rink and several other Eng 140 students (Walter Jackson Bates' course on later 18thC poetry and criticism) find that friend who is blind hasn't done any of the reading, will flunk, sit in his room for an hour feeding him simplistic observations that should earn him a D+, reserve all our profound or witty insights for ourselves, then he fails and we all get straight A's in one of the most rigorously graded humanities classes in the university and think gee, maybe there's something magic to this collaborative study business and that's why it's prohibited)

1972 Watson Rink and 529 classmates told by law school faculty and bureau of study advisors we must all form study groups and collaborate our thinking

1972 Watson Rink proctors undergraduate exams in Lowell Lec: no books or other materials, half a dozen different courses with seats assigned so that nobody is within ten feet of another student in the same course, nobody goes to the bathroom unless accompanied by a proctor, thinks gee never realized how rigorous these groundrules for exams really are, wonder why the divergence between FAS and HLS policies

1973 Studymate brings previous year's lecture notes of legendary "Dollar Bill" Heymann (later appointed to head CFTC) to Prof. Louie Loss's corporations class and answers "what I just described was in fact the holding in Smith v Jones" and Loss says "hmnn, Smith v Jones, I used to assign that case...guess you shepherdized what I assigned this year and found that case...good work!"

1975 Two weeks before securities law final exam Loss reneges on previous "open book" announcement; we do not bring Dollar Bill's outline to the exam but no apparent difference in grades since Loss assigns essay question on debt obligations of the Panama Canal Zone because "this will test your ability to analyze a statutory provision you've never studied before"

1975 Watson Rink takes practice test for Mass Bar Exam, does best on the one subject never studied at HFLS

c1990 Collaborative study movement sweeps America from kindergarten on up

2012 Gov course fails to clarify ground rules about collaborative work and ruins 127 students' lives
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2012-2013

Watson Rink said:
Here are a collection of vignettes that illustrate how haphazard the question of "cheating" at Harvard has been over the years:
Click to expand...

I'd rep your post but I need to spread it around more before I can. Well done. Ending poignant.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2012-2013

Latest news on Newell that I have heard. He is in stable condition in Iowa City but still unconsious.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2012-2013

Watson Rink said:
1966 Watson Rink and several other Eng 140 students (Walter Jackson Bates' course on later 18thC poetry and criticism) find that friend who is blind hasn't done any of the reading, will flunk, sit in his room for an hour feeding him simplistic observations that should earn him a D+, reserve all our profound or witty insights for ourselves, then he fails and we all get straight A's in one of the most rigorously graded humanities classes in the university and think gee, maybe there's something magic to this collaborative study business and that's why it's prohibited)
Click to expand...

I remember this course! Bates was a fantastic lecturer. I also remember taking it pass/fail because I truly was intimidated by the grading stories. Should have taken it for a grade tho' because I aced the final. No confidence.

Here is another one from Harvard lore. Does anyone remember "Boats"? History of Warships or some such title. Anyway, the course was filled with football and hockey players and was pretty straightforward. One paper and a final. The final hardly ever changed from year to year and was on reserve at Pusey library. So I ask you. Is it cheating to write down the questions to the final, head back to your dorm room and search for the answers in the textbook? Because that is what everyone did and I don't think anyone got less than an honors grade. Would it be cheating if you, the starting goalie, the starting QB and a linebacker got together to compare answers? Even though I did not partake in that kind of sharing (the grad assistant was a tutor in my dorm and I was good friends with Mike), it isn't a stretch to imagine team members "collaborating". There were no instructions that I can remember forbidding anyone from 'working together' to prep for the final.

I have no direct knowledge of this scandal and what went on inside the classroom prior to the final. Obviously there is shared accountability here. Students, prof, grad assistant(s). The fact that 120 were accused tells me that there is more going on here than a simple cheating ring. If a few students actively decide to cheat by sharing or swapping answers, that's one thing. 120 students? That would either have to be a conspiracy or some miscommunication that resulted in this incident. It's easy to say 'well shouldn't Harvard students be smart enough to understand simple instructions?" Yes they should unless they felt that the instructions were clear and that there was room to collaborate without penalty. Hence the miscommunication.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2012-2013

NCAA watcher said:
"He is very lucky to come out with very minor injuries. He came out of it last night," said mother Jan Newell on Tuesday afternoon. "He was just incredibly lucky."

Jan said a hospital CAT scan revealed no internal injuries. Victor suffered a fractured eye socket in the crash, but there was no damage to the eye itself.

Victor's father flew out to be at his bedside on Tuesday.

"I can't tell you how terrified I was last night," said Jan.



Read more: http://www.burnabynow.com/were+almost/7699094/story.html#ixzz2FSViwwOB
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Great news!
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2012-2013

Hasn't been mentioned yet I don't think but Jimmy Vesey is with the WJC squad as Team USA took the full came to Europe and did not make cuts (yet). Poor Vesey tweeted that it's 6am in Helsinki and he's up taking his Gov 30 final.

(Least if there's a Gov 30 scandal next year, we know there's no way Vesey could be a collaborator :D)

Hope he makes the full team...as if I needed more of a reason to cheer for the US.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2012-2013

Vesey with player of game honors in win vs Sweden. Gotta think he's on the team as a result
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2012-2013

USHR and Heisenberg have LW Seb Lloyd (West Kelowna - BCHL) committing to Harvard. USHR says it came down to us and the folks in Ithaca. He's got 33 points in 25 in the BCHL so far, was also on the Canada West U19 team where he has 3 goals and an assist in 4 games. He's a 2014 commit per his own twitter feed. https://twitter.com/Sebway4/status/281842142060621824
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2012-2013

We've given up 4 PPGs all season coming into tonight...just gave up 3 in the 2nd period. Oy vey.
 
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