Law Schools
Syracuse Limits Bathroom Breaks Due to Exam Cheating Concerns
Posted May 12, 2009 11:11 AM CST
By Martha Neil
Updated: Taking a bathroom break during an exam is harder than it used to be at Syracuse University College of Law.
Due to cheating concerns, the New York law school has limited first-year students to one visit to the restroom per exam, among other measures being taken to combat the alleged outbreak of academic dishonesty, reports the Post-Standard.
Those with a medical need to use the facilities more often must provide documentation to the law school, the newspaper notes.
An unknown number of first-years were allegedly texting from their cell phones in restrooms during exams.
Although the crackdown on bathroom breaks appears to be limited to Syracuse, at least for now, the law school situation has inspired a satirical post on Litination, as Above the Law points out.
"Reporting" that a well-known BigLaw firm plans to take its oversight of summer associates to the next level and require them to get hall passes before using the facilities, the Litination blog also indicates that the firm--which, of course, is not actually doing this--is ready to impose penalties on violators, too.
"If a summer associate is found wandering the halls without a hall pass or with a hall pass that was issued more than 10 minutes ago, their eventual start date will be delayed an additional year," Litination writes.
Updated on May 13 to include information about subsequent Litination post.
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Comments
B. McLeod
May 12, 2009 11:40 AM CST
So Syracuse has a crop of 1Ls it can’t trust to take a dump during an exam, and its ambition, and its intent, therefore, is to loose them on society at large, with the added credential of a Syracuse JD. Wow.
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Advice
May 12, 2009 6:16 PM CST
Syracuse should find those cheaters and kick them out…
To prevent further cheating at school consider the following:
1) ban cell phones during any exam period;
2) have all exams taking place in the same time period (so no one can text in for support);
3) remind the class, students are ranked, so one person’s rise is another person’s fall (to stop student of same class text each other for support); and
4) move all exam rooms to the basement of buildings (where the cell phone signals are weak)
Though not comprehensive, but hopefully these may help some what
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John
May 12, 2009 7:04 PM CST
This is very sad. I think the school should aggressively find the cheaters and expel them immediately.
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bg
May 13, 2009 12:11 AM CST
First year exams at Syracuse are all scheduled for the same time, so if they were texting each other, they were accessing the messages at successive potty breaks. But why someone would take time out of their own exam to help someone else cheat is beyond me! Seems like a better use of your time would be to figure it out on your own.
The lecture hall exam rooms are on the lower floors; the buildings, however, are built into the back of a hill. Apparently there are also rumors of students logging into the exam software after the exam is over and changing their answers. Maybe it is time to start writing exams again. It is insane that cheating has apparently become such a rampant problem that it was necessary to send a notice to students that was picked up by the local paper.
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fed up
May 13, 2009 10:11 AM CST
It would be nice to get ride of lying, cheating law students before they become lying, cheating lawyers.
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Douglas Peterson
May 13, 2009 10:48 AM CST
Why not ban cell phones rather than ban bathroom breaks? Seems like they’re going about these things the wrong way.
And also, who much information can really be transmitted in 140 characters or less? I’d rather spend the time it takes to actually work on my exam, rather than get 140 letters about the exam from a peer.
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P. Bryson
May 13, 2009 11:51 AM CST
It seems like everyone but me has an iPhone. I bet they weren’t simply texting. Heck, an ad on the side of this page just told me that you can view word docs on the new Blackberry.
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bg
May 14, 2009 8:41 PM CST
It was more than simply testing. There were allegations that some students were consulting their notes [maybe they went to their locker instead of the bathroom] and there are concerns that exams are being altered after the time for the exam has ended. I think part of the problem is that cell phones are now so small that you can slip them into a pocket, and no one knows it is there.
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Marian
May 20, 2009 5:26 PM CST
CA first year law students exam allows no purses, briefcases, etc….and supervises any break, which takes time off the time allowed for the test….why would anyone who wants to be an attorney try this and ruin his/her career??
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