Harvard Students Accused of Cheating in Class About Congress

More than half of the Harvard University students accused of plagiarism in an “Intro to Congress” course have been forced to withdraw from the school. 

The Boston Globe reported that “of the students not required to withdraw, roughly half were placed on disciplinary probation, while the rest received no punishment and had their cases dismissed.”

“Consistent with the Faculty’s rules and our obligations to our students, we do not report individual outcomes of Administrative Board cases, but only report aggregate statistics,” Harvard Dean Michael D. Smith wrote. “In that tradition, the College reports that somewhat more than half of the Administrative Board cases this past fall required a student to withdraw from the College for a period of time. Of the remaining cases, roughly half the students received disciplinary probation, while the balance ended in no disciplinary action.”

Last August, the Harvard Crimson reported that nearly half of the students in a 279-student “Introduction to Congress” class faced plagiarism charges. A typo led to the eventual discovery of the widespread plagiarism. The official title of the course was: “Government 1310: Introduction to Congress.”