Your Cheatin' Hearts

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Your Cheatin' Hearts

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Big Brother

May. 11th, 2006 at 11:38 AM

Because of its mostly asinine content, I rarely (a) read or (b) believe anything that is posted at AutoAdmit.com, but recent (anonymous and who-knows-how true) accusations of cheating among this year's 1Ls concerns me.

I don't know how much I believe the OP. He has the classic markings of an attention whore (and yes, it takes one to know one and all that), by making vague accusations and never providing any details. And yet, he's OMG!outraged that the administration isn't doing anything about it!!!11ONE My gut tells me that he really doesn't know anything about anything, that maybe the administration was looking into something, and when he didn't see the conclusion, he wanted to effectively ensure UT's integrity by... posting vague comments on an asinine and anonymous discussion board. Our honor codes says that, "[a] student who knows of unethical behavior of another student is under an obligation to take the steps necessary to expose this behavior," and by golly he's going to expose that unethical behavior by keeping the details to himself and dropping hints on a message board that no administrator is ever going to read.

And his excuse for no details? "I don't want to screw up any future punishment by releasing all details I know now. I don't know if that may or may not affect it, but I'd rather be cautious so the fuckers can eat a dick." Right. Because some asshat on a message board is going to make the Powers That Be say, "You know, cheating is unacceptable and could lead to expulsion, but since someone released all the details on the internets, we're going to let you stay at school. Have a good year, and thanks for stopping by." I call a BS/AW combo, but I'm willing to entertain evidence to the contrary.

So inquiring minds want to know: were there 1Ls cheating? Has it been properly reported? Anyone know how they were cheating or what's going to be done? Anyone know why they were cheating? It seems to me that a B in Crim Law would be better than risking my entire legal education and career, but I learned to accept my mediocrity sometime during my first semester.

ADDENDUM: Sent from a reader, who is just repeating what he's heard, so this isn't exactly verifiable. Take with several grains of salt, perhaps?

A group of 1Ls in a different section from his were apparently taking "excessive bathroom breaks" during a closed book exam and it's believed that they were leaving the test room to look at their notes and/or discuss the exam. Because he's not in their section, he can't confirm (this is just what he heard), but he did say that he'd heard about it before I posted this entry.

*anxiously wrings hands* I can't help but hope that it turns out that they were just leaving the exam room because they were sick, which may be naive (but I did leave my Civ Pro exam several times to be sick... of course, it was open book/outline...). I just can't understand the need to cheat, and if they did indeed do it, then I'm really disappointed (as I'm sure that's their biggest worry right now--what I think of them). Also, an Anonymouse says that the Powers That Be are investigating. In the meantime, I'd prefer if no one named names here, because I'd hate to have contributed to allegations of cheating towards specific people if it turns out not to be true. That would suck. Comments are temporarily screened, just in case (but of course I'll approve anything that doesn't name names).

So... apparently the OP on AutoAdmit is not BSing. But he's still an attention whore. *nods*

Current Location:my couch. I love my couch.
Current Mood:skeptical

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(Anonymous)

May. 11th, 2006 05:17 pm (UTC)

Sack up, people, you're going to be a lawyer. All of us will be legally obligated to expose unethical behavior as professionals. So, it's time for the anonymous posters to grow some balls.

As for the alleged cheaters--you shouldn't be in law school if you don't want to follow the rules. If anyone actually cheated they should be expelled, and I'm sure UT will treat this seriously.

Hate to admit it, but, as the Honor Code says, we are all harmed by unethical behavior.

One question, though, what is the AW in the "BS/AW" combo?

--rcd

January 2009