FILE:
Case # 1398 (2022-2023)
DATE:
February 13, 2023, via Zoom
PARTIES:
University of Toronto v. T.K.P. (“the Student”)
HEARING DATE(S):
February 13, 2023, via Zoom
PANEL MEMBERS:
R.S.M. Woods, Chair
Professor Gabriele D’Eleuterio, Faculty Panel Member
Missy Chareka, Student Panel Member
APPEARANCES:
Tina Lie, Assistant Discipline Counsel, Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP
Hillson Tse, Counsel for the Student, RGZ
The Student
HEARING SECRETARY:
Samanthe Huang, Quasi-Judicial Administrative Assistant, Office of Appeals, Discipline and Faculty of Grievances
The Student was charged under s. B.i.1 (b) of the Code for knowingly obtaining unauthorized assistance in relation to an assignment. In the alternative, the Student was charged under s. B.i.1 (d) for knowingly representing as their own an idea or work of another. The Student was also alternatively charged under s. B.i.3 (b) for knowingly engaging in a form of cheating, academic dishonesty or misconduct, fraud or misrepresentation not otherwise described in the Code in order to obtain academic advantage in connection with an assignment.
The assignment was distributed to students online. Students in the course were asked to work independently and not post the questions or solutions online, nor use external sources. The Student submitted his answers and the instructor found substantial similarities, and in certain sections identical answers, between the Student’s answers and answers to the same questions the instructor found posted on Chegg.com.
The Student attended the hearing and was represented by counsel. In the Agreed Statement of Facts, the Student denied accessing Chegg.com but admitted to knowingly accessing a website that they do not believe was Chegg.com to obtain and use solutions to questions in the assignment, obtaining unauthorized assistance from an external source, knowingly representing as his own, an idea or expression of an idea or work of another and committing plagiarism on the assignment. Based on the evidence in the Agreed Statement of Facts, the Panel accepted the Student’s guilty plea and found the Student guilty of the first charge for knowingly obtaining unauthorized aid under s. B.i.1 (b) of the Code. The University withdrew the second and third charges.
The Student and the University submitted an Agreed Statement of Facts on Penalty (“ASFP”). According to the ASFP, the Student has been sanctioned for three separate prior offences, each pertaining to the use of unauthorized assistance. The University and the Student also submitted a Joint Submission on Penalty (“JSP”), which recommended sanctions and required the Student to complete the Promoting Academic Skills for Success Program or a similar program at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
The Panel considered the University’s submission that the penalties proposed in the JSP fall in the range of sanctions proposed in similar and recent cases involving academic misconduct by students with prior offences. The Panel considered aggravating factors such as the Student’s three prior offences. It also considered mitigating factors such as the Student’s guilty plea, participation in the Tribunal proceedings, and agreement to take the PASS course or its equivalent. The Panel found that the Student’s participation in the process and guilty plea developed insight into the Student’s actions. The Panel found that offence was very serious with the potential to adversely impact other students and the University’s reputation. The Panel found that there was also a real risk of the same offence being repeated without significant sanction. The Panel found the JSP appropriate in this case and accepted the proposed sanctions.
The Panel imposed the following sanctions: a grade assignment of zero for the course; a three-year suspension; a notation on the Student’s transcript until their graduation; and a report to Provost for publication with the Student’s name withheld.