When an instructor decides to reschedule an exam, students may be relieved that they have a few extra days to study. But for the 600 students in Chester Brown’s MCB 247 lab, they’ve gained more than a few extra days; they now have a final exam that’s almost twice the original length.

Last week, a student alerted Brown that classmates who had already taken a lab practical the previous day were using Facebook to share information about test material. Brown canceled the exam on Tuesday while it was still in session. All students’ scores, regardless of when they took the test, were thrown out, according to campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler.

“Apparently, in this course, some group of students had created a Facebook group to share information and discuss course topics,” Kaler said. “At some point before this test, apparently some students had decided to morph it into a cheating site (after) they had taken the exam themselves.”

Kaler said students posted the questions and answers they remembered from taking the exam.

Brown’s class syllabus includes a section about academic integrity, saying,

“Science cannot exist without honesty. The faculty and staff of MCB 247 require students, as scientists-in-the-making, to hold the highest standards of scientific and academic conduct,” stated Brown’s class syllabus under a section entitled academic integrity. “On all exams, the answers that you turn in for grading must be your own, formulated during the exam from your own understanding of the material and without any supporting information, be it written, verbal or electronic.”

The exam was worth 15 percent of the total grade for the class. Because the exam was cancelled, the material will now be included in the final exam May 8, Kaler said.

“The plan is to incorporate this content into the final exam,” Kaler said. “So the final exam had been expected to take about an hour and a half to two hours, (and) now it will take two and a half to three hours to complete.”

After Brown stopped the practical, an e-mail was sent out explaining that it was cancelled “due to a reported violation of campus academic integrity policies” and that the violation was “under investigation by the college.” Brown could not be reached for comment, and students and teaching assistants were advised not to comment on the investigation.

However, Karen Carney, associate dean of LAS, said it is the instructor’s job to act as a “fact-finder,” and the college does not get involved until later in the process or if there is a student appeal.

“I pretty much serve as a resource to faculty who might contact me about our academic integrity,” Carney said. “I oversee the process, but I don’t personally investigate cases. That is done by the instructor.”

Carney said an instructor first submits a letter of suspicion to the student or students involved, who then have time to respond. The instructor decides on a penalty, and if the student decides to appeal, the college or department will become involved.

Penalties for violations of academic integrity are outlined in the Student Code and include a written warning, a reduced grade on the assignment and a failing grade for the course, among other consequences. On occasion, a student may be dismissed from the University on a repeat offense.

Lt. Roy Acree of University police said the department was not contacted in reference to this incident and have not arrested anyone on the basis of a violation of academic integrity.

“Now that’s not to say that we would never do that,” Acree said. “We have been used to investigate certain activities on campus that aren’t necessarily crimes because we do have experience interviewing people … Usually that’s (academic integrity issues) handled at the unit level or the campus administration level.”

In 2011, the University’s Senate Committee on Student Discipline reported 465 violations of academic integrity, resulting in only one dismissal from the University. The reports of academic violations in 2011 were well above the 243 cases reported in 2010 and the 107 cases reported in 2009.

Carney said she thinks that the rise of social media has “created new ways of sharing information for good as well as for more negative,” but she said couldn’t specifically point the finger at Facebook for aiding student cheating.