51 West Point cadets caught cheating must repeat a year
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Most of the 73 West Point cadets accused in the biggest cheating scandal in decades at the U.S. Military Academy are being required to repeat a year, and eight were expelled, academy officials said Friday.
The cadets were accused of cheating on an online calculus exam in May while students were studying remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instructors had noticed irregularities in answers. All but one were freshmen, or plebes, in a class of 1,200. The other was a sophomore.
West Point said that of the 73 cases investigated by the cadet honor committee, six cadets resigned during the investigation, four were acquitted by a board of their peers, and two cases were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Most of the cadets, 51, were "turned back" one full year after admitting to cheating, and two were turned back six months. Eight were removed from the academy.
"West Point must be the gold standard for developing Army officers. We demand nothing less than impeccable character from our graduates," Superintendent Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams said in a prepared release.
The academy also said it will end its 6-year-old "willful admission process," which is designed to protect cadets who promptly admit to wrongdoing from being kicked out. Officials determined the process was not meeting its goal of increasing self-reporting and decreasing toleration for violations of the honor code.
The cheating scandal is the biggest at West Point since 1976, when 153 cadets resigned or were expelled for cheating on an electrical engineering exam.
There was a time at the service academies that an honor violation of this nature resulted in automatic removal, and you wouldn't just be let go, you would finish your contracted obligation in the enlisted ranks.
We keep lowering the bar for some reason....
Look at the standards for graduating high school. There is a serious lack of something in this country
Too much social media, not enough core values. Seems like the kids today aspire to being a rockstar with a microphone or a pro athlete with commercials.
Or an "influencer"...
I would like to see schools concentrate on core values like personal responsibility, integrity, and honesty and stop trying to stuff useless facts into their heads. Teach them more about critical thinking
That is the way I was taught. To think about a problem and how to solve it, instead of memorizing some random fact.
boo hoo hoo, 51 future republican political careers ruined in one fell swoop.
Don't worry. They'll all go to some third rate law school and run for Congress when they turn 28
I dont know if its changed in 30+ years but it use to be the officer corps ( which they would be joining on graduation) were likely to lean democrat than they were to lean repub , the enlisted corps only slightly leaned repub and were more evenly split it appeared to me.
thing back then is people could talk about politics off duty and not get offended by someone elses views .
what i considered the good officers or NCOs you had no clue to their politics.
That's right...... You check everything at the door. You are 100% mission-centric 100% of the time!
Fly your making me feel real old , thats how it was done back when i went in , even served with a few that had that happen to them , they seldom lasted past the contract obligation.
Somehow I get the feeling that you can do way better than just fogging a mirror Mark.... If nothing else, your brain is still sharp. You haven't gotten to the singularity before the rest of us by chance?
(smirks) depends on what you mean......
Dude..... take the opportunity and run with it buddy. It's Friday!!!!!
If what you mean by singularity is being different , or unique and i have and recognize my own individuality , that to some could be considered particular , then yep i have reached that point of being very comfortable in my own skin and situation .
if you are meaning an eccentricity or abnormality not commonly found in others ( going against the grain) , i would say that exists as well.
have i reached a point of understanding that in a persons life / existance , that there has been and always will be an infinite number of possabilities , that are affected by everything that surrounds them and is simply a matter of the choices they make even if they have no control over the ultimate destination? could be .
some could say since i have made my own choices and decided to live a certain way , i have reached a point of inner peace , a zen so to speak , all because of the above mentioned things .
Could be from a lack of qualified applicants.
Imo that happens a lot more than people think when one can take an online test.
Test in one tab google in another.
Unless that computer is dedicated to exams only. My daughter took her boards on a computer but it was in a controlled area. I'm pretty sure she couldn't google "appendectomy" while answering a question
Now if these cadets were taking the exam at home or their dorm room, I can see that happening
Thanks. I am not sure how it all works.
Something I never had to deal with back in the day.
That's why I appreciated my online college experience. We didn't have exams; we wrote thesis papers and did discussion boards among the students in the class to show the knowledge we've obtained. I had to write at least 2 papers every weekend [accelerated program] and be part of the discussions minimum of 4 days a week with meaningful responses. I'm terrible when it comes to memorizing facts and regurgitating them on a test; I did far better performing research and writing a paper [4-8 pages] to show understanding of the subject being taught.
I think that's a better way to learn something
The way I look at it is... if one has the knowledge of how to research and comprehend, they can learn anything. If one can simply regurgitate facts, they're good test takers, nothing more.
Let's put it this way... in High School, I graduated with a 2.1 or something and I only did that well, because my senior year was filled with electives. However, I graduated college with a 3.97. Completely different ways of learning / proving that something was learned.
Expel them all.
The problem i have with making them repeat a year is all the academys have a limited number of slots for cadets it is NOT open enrollment . so the next years class is down 51 slots , it makes no mention of where they are in terms of first or last year so, some actually deserving individual is out a slot while these anal drips get to continue on .
My feeling is they should be either filling their contract after expulsion in the enlisted corp , or be made to pay back what was paid for their attendance immediately , no student loan type deal.
I didn't think about that. Some next year hopefuls will get screwed.
and do you think that it will just be forgotten? once commissioned i would bet dollars to doughnuts their commanding officers will know exactly who they are . and that will filter down through the chain of command to the lowest enlisted member that these people are not to be trusted and treated as such .
You have that right. It will be in their 201 and read by everyone with access wherever they're assigned. I tend to believe they won't be invited to join The Old Guard, and might even have difficulties with any position that requires a clearance above secret.
Maybe they can be talked into being "haze grey and underway......."? Or "One of the few.....".
"One of the few"???? We don't take rejects - 'specially from the Green Machine.
Talk the next years potential cadets into enlisting after getting screwwed over by 51 cadets that have already proven to have a character flaw?
i would rather crap in my hand and clap, it would make less of a mess.
the 'rejects would be the 51 set back a year not the future cadets getting screwed out of a slot , being convinced to enlist ...