Suspected Cheating at MIT is Debunked

It had all the makings of a headline news story. A hacker had supposedly broken into the grading system for an MIT biology class and changed the grades of 22 students.

The announcement ran in yesterday's Boston Globe and came on the heels of what some newspapers have called the biggest scandal in Ivy League history after 78 Dartmouth College students were accused of cheating in an introductory computer science class last week.

But yesterday afternoon, officials at MIT said the allegations simply were not true.

The grade-changing incident was actually just an inadvertent error made by a person authorized to enter grades, according to a statement by Professor Harvey Lodish in a press release from the MIT News Office.

"The sorting of a grades spreadsheet is done by using a computer mouse to highlight the two columns of names and corresponding grades," the press release reported.

"In this case, there was a slip-up in the use of the mouse and only the column of names was sorted, resulting in grades being assigned to the wrong people. The error raised the grades of two students and lowered the grades of 20 students," it said.

As whispers about inadequate computer security and moral lapses quieted down yesterday, MIT students said they were not disturbed by the incident.

Scott D. Johnston, an MIT sophomore, said he retained faith in his fellow students.

"I think it was just an honest mistake on the part of the class administrators," Johnston said. "I definitely think cheating at MIT is well below where it would be other places."

Some Harvard students said they thought the MIT incident demonstrates that college administrators are too quick to blame students for cheating.

"My reaction initially is one of amusement. They should be more careful to check them out before they make unfounded accusations," Christian A. Garcia '03 said.

Although students felt it was important that college administrators make academic honesty a top priority, they said administrators should not accuse students without substantial evidence.

"On the one hand, you have administrators who are sensitized to the issue," said Seth D. Familian '01. "Academic fairness is the top priority for them. I don't think you can fault them for being overly sensitive."

"But I really think there is a line that has to be drawn," he said. "When you start pushing the line, acting on hearsay, that's where you have a problem."

Familian also emphasized that there is a fine line between cheating and collaboration.

Octavian S. Timaru '03 said that in computer science classes, there are legitimate reasons why students might end up with similar programs as a result of collaboration.

"When you discuss a program with other people, you almost tend to write the same code because you are thinking about it in the same way," Timaru said.

In addition, he said, Harvard's general environment tends to discourage cheating.

"I think people either have too much honor or pride to just go in there and copy," Timaru said.