Booted from the class, or in some cases the university altogether? No, I'm sorry. Cheating is a serious matter, but I don't think zero tolerance is any more effective or fair in classrooms than it is in courts.

You know, they're all big talk, but it turns out quite often that kids who get kicked out end up back in (often because their parents threatened to sue).

Anyway, I see a continuum. Cheating on a lab report -- I agree, booted from the class seems on the harsh side, and kicked from the university probably too much (in most circumstances) -- especially since sometimes what's happened is slippage from discussing an assignment with their peers to working on it together to copying. But what about students who turn in term papers that are absolutely not their work?

I've been kicked out of a college for not following the code of conduct that I signed.

"Cheating is bad. Richard Basehart is good."

...which was patently unfair, though, you have to admit. (to vw)

Well, yes, since said breakage happened the summer before I signed the code of conduct. But, they didn't think that made any difference.

I'd turn them in, because their cheating is devaluing my degree. Their cheating could get found out later, and the resulting scandal will lead to no end of the sniggering about whether my degree has value or not. I mean, I've watched my alma mater get slammed over the last year for the football player rape scandals, the Ward Churchill debacle, all sorts of money scandals, and the eventual departure of the leadership of the school. All of that has diminished the value of my degree, probably more so than picking up another Nobel and another McArthur and a few more Fulbrights.

I say, report 'em. This is different from a family who is cheating ADC to stay alive on their minimum wage income and crushing medical expenses. You can't eat a test.

Honor code? At my college, one of the bright stars of our department won awards with a story about Israel she Made Up... I'm thinking not so much. I still hate her though for making "the journalism department" sound like "lying sacks of shit" to the people we tried to report for/on. Die, Mary Ann Singleton, die.(Although I doubt that she really had a name like a Maupin character, but the memory is fickle, and only the hate remains.)

Well, yes, since said breakage happened the summer before I signed the code of conduct. But, they didn't think that made any difference.

That's pretty bogus. Weenies. t ::stabs them::

It worked out for the best. I got out of the FAC environment, and my family did too.

Hec went to a VERY LIBERAL liberal arts college, IIRC.

Not politically, but it had an extreme hands-off administrative approach when I was there.

FWIW, I did know every single person in my graduating class by name, and over the course of 4 years had socialized or taken classes with probably 90% of them. I certainly did feel a loyalty to my classmates, which was reinforced by my experience there. But I also felt a strong loyalty to my school and its academic standards, and to my professors. I never cheated on anything in college for the simple reason that I respected all of my professors (even the ones I didn't like particularly).