legalcurious wrote:
So what you are saying is that if someone accuses a student for cheating, and even tho he didnt do it but just because he cant prove that he was guilty he will be punished? How ridiculous! This is not the way it should be. You are innocent until proven otherwise, not guilty until you can prove your innocence.
To legalcurious: You are exactly right when you say that this is not the way it should be. I completely and totally agree with you except for the part in your subsequent post about me being an idiot (although I do and say dumb things from time to time, I’m only a real idiot occasionally). I hope I can convince you that this is not one of those instances.
I am the chair of the academic integrity committee at my college. From attending academic integrity conferences, reading case studies from a number of institutions and constructing our policy on academic dishonesty, I know that most institutional policies are nearly identical to ours. I don't want to get too far off the subject of Kip Litton and cheating in running, but I'll digress for a couple of paragraphs into my thoughts about academic cheating, as they speak to the frustration that I and many others have about disqualification from races by race directors.
According to Donald McCabe at Rutgers, who has conducted numerous surveys on cheating over the past 15 years, and the Center for Academic Integrity (located at Clemson), which compiles and publishes survey results and advice for colleges trying to address cheating, about 80% of all college students nationwide have cheated at least once on an exam or another significant assignment during their college careers. Ouch. A major reason for this, according to the data is that students perceive that they can get away with it. Why? The first response by nearly all faculty when faced with a possible cheating case is to turn a blind eye, and many students know this. Taking a cheating case through the formal administrative procedure can be a bureaucratic nightmare to pursue, and (here’s the main issue) faculty often have the mistaken impression that they must have an ironclad, open-shut case in order to make an allegation. The point I want to make about cheating in academics and its extension into the Litton case is that nothing changes unless the professors are willing to make an accusation and follow each case through until the end, and unless the university policy is strong enough that a professor can be reasonably confident it won’t be a waste of time. The negative in all of this is what you correctly pointed out – occasionally, it is possible that an innocent (usually really careless) student gets busted. The positive is that at schools where policies are followed most of the time, the incidence of cheating is dramatically reduced.
In running, the extension is that many race directors throw up their hands when faced with an allegation of cheating. “I’m really suspicious, but he hit all of the mats, so there is nothing I can do,” is the most common statement. My point regarding the Litton case is that although there was ample evidence to disqualify him from all of his 2010 marathons, race directors were reluctant to do so either because they were afraid of the administrative work or afraid that Litton would contest the DQ. I would argue that marathon RD’s should use some cheap and easy safeguards for race integrity: race photos in at least two places other than the finish and/or two unannounced video points. Both of these can be accomplished with a borrowed off-the-shelf digital camera or video recorder, or the official race photographer can be used. In addition, if the race uses the more expensive chip mats, at least one of them should be positioned at an undisclosed location. Last, we should resurrect the stipulation that your race bib must be showing or a racer will be disqualified. If a racer screws up more than one of these, the strong likelihood is that he or she cheated. In this case RD's need to feel free to DQ the racer without miguided fear of repurcussions.
I know it seems harsh or unfair to entertain the possibility that an innocent person might be accused of cheating in academics or road racing, but I would argue that cheating itself is far more widespread a problem than mistaken or erroneous allegations of cheating.