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Duke: No Mercy For CS 201 Cheaters Who Don't Turn Selves In By Wednesday

theodp writes: The Duke Chronicle published an e-mail reportedly sent to hundreds of Duke students who took Computer Science 201 (Data Structures & Algorithms) last spring, giving those who copied solutions to class problems until Nov. 12th to turn themselves in for cheating. "Students who have violated course policies but do not step forward by November 12, 2014," warns the e-mail, "will not be offered faculty-student resolution and will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct for disciplinary processes without any recommendation for leniency." The Chronicle adds that CS Prof Owen Astrachan, co-director of undergraduate studies, admitted that there is a fine line between collaboration and cheating in computer science — online and in person, although Astrachan made it clear in comments that "Students who copied code from the Internet are in violation of the community standard and course policies."

2 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Or just practicing for an actual job by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just out of curiosity are there any professional programmers out there who don't regularly copy functions from the Internet?

    Back when I was coding as my primary job, we never copied, we might have drawn inspiration.

    We'd look at a tutorial, but we sure as heck wouldn't have looked at, say, code from Linux we planned on cribbing. Whereas if we had the FreeBSD or Apache source code, we just might.

    Part of being a contemporary coder is knowing who you're legally allowed to borrow from, and who you're not.

    But, part of getting your education involves not cheating. So, if "making use of available code" turns into "plagiarism and not meeting the school's academic policies" ... well, you're pretty much screwed, aren't you?

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  2. Re:What if they're basketball players? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Right, because unlike other schools UNC gives their athletes the soft glove treatment. Lulz.

    Are your football players smart? Didn't think so.

    What rock do you live under?

    Fake classes, inflated grades: Massive UNC scandal included athletes over 2 decades

    CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A scandal involving bogus classes and inflated grades at the University of North Carolina was bigger than previously reported, encompassing about 1,500 athletes who got easy A's and B's over a span of nearly two decades, according to an investigation released Wednesday.

    ...