Chris Avenir is very happy to put the incident behind him.
"I'm really relieved — it's good news, and I guess I'll be more attentive to (misconduct) policies when my name is on the line — even though I don't really have any regrets about the Facebook group," the 18-year-old Mississauga resident said last night.
In a landmark ruling on Internet use, a Ryerson disciplinary panel ruled the first-year engineering student should not be expelled for helping run a Facebook study group in chemistry last fall. His passing mark in the course was ordered to be restored.
In the seven-page ruling, the engineering faculty appeals committee found no proof the Facebook site actually led to cheating by any of its 147 users, even though it invited them to "post solutions" to homework that was worth 10 per cent of the final mark.
But the committee ruled that because the site provided "the potential for large-scale cheating," Avenir should get zero on that 10 per cent portion — which won't change his passing grade — and that he attend a workshop on academic integrity.
"Maybe every student should have to go to this kind of workshop," Avenir said after reviewing the decision.
The committee also ruled Avenir should receive a disciplinary notation in his student record, which he can appeal.
The course's professor had said the homework was to be done independently, so upon discovering the homework site after the course ended, he dropped Avenir's mark from B to F and recommended the 18-year-old's be kicked out of school — both steps the three-person panel overruled.
"We're very excited Chris won't be expelled and this is very good news for students who want to use Facebook to study," said Nora Loreto, head of Ryerson Students' Union.
Technology dean James Norrie said the ruling showed "due process works" and hoped the case "will spark a broader debate on these deep issues."
"Are we Luddites here at Ryerson? No, but our academic misconduct code says if work is to be done individually and students collaborate, that's cheating, whether it's by Facebook, fax or mimeograph."
