73 Comments
Real mature
A source close to Professor Ellsberg has informed us that the majority of students suspected of cheating in the so-called “Barnard Cheating Scandal” are actually men and women from Columbia College. Of the 123 students, only around a fifth of the students have been specifically marked out as having cheated–and Ellsberg has a list of names.
Additionally, our source tells us that the alleged cheating was more serious than previously believed. It was not simply Googling answers, but students paying other students to help them receive higher grades. It is of note that students did not personally grade their own quizzes; they were scored by classmates (peer-graded, not self-graded).
Finally, it is apparent that a number of students (all CC) dropped the class as soon as the final was added, and that those suspected of cheating will be hearing from the disciplinary board soon.
Update, 12:34 am: The New York Times has picked up the story, describing the incident as “quite tame” (compared to the Harvard scandal of 2012). The Times also reports that, after learning about cheating early in the semester, Ellsberg delegated the responsibility of grading all quizzes to “a few reliable students.”
To scale model via Shutterstock
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73 Comments
@... wait wait wait, hold up here. i’ve been out of the cauldron for almost a year but thought i’d check back to see what ridiculous shit was blowing up at the end of this year at columbia. it’s columbia’s one true tradition and true to form, it didn’t disappoint…
but honestly, y’all are missing the real story here. columbia will always be ridiculous, there will always be cheating, disunity and shitheads behaving badly. cheating was rampant in many of my classes, and often blatant. it’s kind of a systemic problem where quantity and image are emphasized over careful (and more importantly, realistically humanly possible) deep study… having seen it over a few years at CU, the whole jonah lehrer debacle makes perfect sense…
but forget that, the real story here is that the motherfucking NEW YORK TIMES has cited a motherfucking “commenter on Bwog.”
the future is here, and it is fucking frightening. peace out.
@vom I had an email exchange with the author of the NYT article yesterday, asking why, if she was comfortable citing “a commenter on BWOG” that she didn’t mention any of the allegations in this article. She skirted the issue, blaming upper management. Welcome to the [existing] world order of irresponsible, lazy journalism.
@Anon Why are Columbia College students cheating in an English class at Barnard College?
Why did students (all from CC) drop the class as soon as the final was added as a requirement?
@SEAS '13 I propose that SEAS secede from the union. Where are my ‘aye’s?
@BarnardStudent Funny how we were all so willing to shit on Barnard, yet there’s no crusade to sling the same shit at CC. Maybe that’s because CC students are the only ones with any reputation for *needing* to seem superior to those around them. I would say we are all equals, but I’m becoming increasingly convinced that Barnard student are more valuable to the world for their positive, respectful attitudes. Oh, and because THEY DON’T CHEAT IN EXTRAVAGANTLY EASY COURSES!
@bc'13 ^this
@Anonymous you’re just adding to the problem. Why can’t we all just get along?
@Anonymous Believe me, I’ve been in class with many a CU sports team member….Barnard students with the flu or knocked unconscious would do better than them on any English quiz. Without having to cheat.
@BC '16 While the sentiment that Barnard students are just as capable is completely appreciated, I really don’t think athlete bashing is the way to go. I know a bunch of really smart athletes who just also happen to be doing what they love. If you go to this university, you go to this university, end of story.
@RD the girls who go to barnard are less intelligent on every level than even the kids on the columbia football team. talk about a disgrace–how can columbia students go to class with these half-wits?
@Blunts in Butler Most Barnard students are smarter than you.
@er NYT is actually all over the good at Columbia. We just don’t bother reading it until it’s a scandal because we have too much homework.
@Anonymous Why didn”t the Barnard cheaters drop the class?
@Why Why do Barnard girls think they are part of the Ivy League?
@Anonymous Why do you think you’re special?
@New Drinking Game 1) Read Bwog Comments
2) Have a shot every time someone says “Ivy League”
3) Have a sip every time someone mentions privilege
4) Die of alcohol poisoning and embarrassment.
@Beyonce Pad Thai Coach Taylor would never have let this happen.
@Anonymous If Ivy Leaguers are getting caught cheating in college how the hell are they going to do good and make it on Wall Street? Well… America’s Fucked, everyone is screwed, and that’s just perfect, you all are ruining a perfectly good system thats been around way longer than you.
@Barnard 2015 I’m wondering how this was verified… Via anonymous tip or through an actual source?
@Anonymous All the students who dropped the class were CC, so that’s pretty good verification.
@Peter We have an actual source, and we’re sure that they are very knowledgeable about the situation.
@Shut up Peter.
@waiiiiit how did NYT pick up on THIS “quite tame” incident (with random students given way too much temptation and easy ways to rationalize cheating because the professor obviously didn’t care about this quiz- not justifying it, just saying it was unsurprising due to the ridiculous situation the professor created, and probably not indicative of a larger problem at the university)
and NOT the bigger scandal of football players who appear to have a much more endemic problem of a culture of racism (and all the other isms), and all the problems their speech implies of a culture of hatred and privilege given to maybe-undeserving athletes, over other students. maybe they will get to it later?
(side note- NYT reporters read Bwog comments- hope y’all are flattered)
@Anonymous Not that I agree with it but large-scale cheating at an ivy league university is a pretty big deal. Asian and homophobic tweets are a dime a dozen. Again, i love our progressiveness, but it’s a bit atypical. There were much harsher rape threats up at Dartmouth a few weeks back, and not only did the day off that students got not receive further press coverage, but commenters in the student blogs and newspapers thought administration was overreacting. Cheating, for better or for worse, is generally much more taboo
@Anonymous I disagree that the teacher asked for this. I came to college to learn, not to take easy classes and cheat with all my peers. Lying about grades is serious. And bribery is even more serious if you are to claim that it was the teacher’s fault beforehand. Both situations are terrible, but the way you framed this question is beyond ridiculous.
@Anonymous Why does the New York Times only print negative articles about Columbia? You never read about all the discoveries, inventions, new institutes, donations etc. We are constantly bestowing Pulitzer Prizes on them andthey continue this one sided sensational garbage.
@whosebadrap Hey dummy, I think you mean CC students (once again) ruined BARNARD’s reputation VIA the NYT. Read the damn article. It’s a lovely little exercise in half-truths. Columbia walks away unscathed.
@Wutang Stop with the barnard vs. columbia garbage. It’s so pathetic.
@whosebadrap No one batted an eyelash until the NYT shamed students for Barnard-bashing. How’s your recent residence on the moral high ground treating you?
@Anon For decades students at Barnard College have been verbally abused for being students of a college affiliated with Columbia University.
@lel u like seas?
ur mom gon like i tshen she seas dis dick : – )
FOOTBALL
@er wow, a source tells me most of the cheaters were columbia students, how likely is it that bwog made up the source or the source is not that credible?
@Anonymous Cause bwog lacks journalistic integrity and puts its ass on the line for barnard oh so often…
@Anonymous So everyone making fun of Barnard and everyone making fun of the honor code is looking pretty dumb right now.
@Anonymous Lol love the Bwog’s “when you assume” tag…
Shockingly, I guess Barnard students do deserve to be here despite them only being affiliates of the grand ivy league, and Steve Castellano and Bob Sun may be onto something about needing to reassess how we view academic integrity at this school.
@also Big ups to whoever came up with “have fun with that commenters.”
@I think the real question here is Why couldn’t she grade her own damn quizzes?? And aren’t there TAs for that ish?
@Anonymous apparently not–which is an issue of itself. why is one of the more popular classes so understaffed?
@Anonymous becau$e
@Anonymous you’re drunk
@Anonymous Yo why isn’t the Bwog background back to blue yet? Did everyone forget about this shitty redesign??
@Heisenberg Just to point out, while you have to give your paper to someone else to grade, you could just trade with a friend. Also, she could not tell if you didn’t trade but just kept your own paper.
@CC 16 we’re not talking about the most well designed grading style for this class
@BC '15 Except Ellsberg designated the grading to five or six responsible students after someone came to her and told her about the cheating.
@This is where Barnard ends Columbia should just let Barnard go. Then Barnard can go bankrupt and then Columbia can buy all of its facilities. That way you get rid of this type of scandals and of the great divide that the presence of Barnard creates in the undergraduate population. Finally, Barnard is simply not an Ivy League School. It is just fortunate to be across the street from one.
@Anonymous “That way you get rid of this type of scandals”
Drunk troll cannot tell the difference between the singulars and the plurals.
@More like Slurrals.
@No Just no.
@K. @This is where Barnard ends: Yeah sure, using the money from the ‘gratuity’ of the Faculty House workers, r i g h t?
@Anonymous Can we have a sensible discussion about how Columbia College really isn’t part of Barnard and that CC students can’t hack the academic rigors across the street?
Also, racism.
And hate crime.
@Anonymous and the v-show sucked…
@Anon You are very mean spirited.
@Crawlb4bawl Here’s a drastic idea:
Instead of being on facebook, why don’t you actually face a book so you don’t have to cheat?
@not funny go home.
@Anonymous How can they even drop this late in the semester? Does this mean that the scandal came out over a month ago but was only made public now?
@Yes This has been hushed up by the administration for a number of months now, I heard rumors about it about a month ago and was wondering when shit would hit the fan.
@Anonymous No, the scandal happened about three weeks ago and people were given the option to drop, p/d/f, or stick with the class and got an extended deadline to make their decision.
@Anonymous lol cc.
;)
@Oh lawd Hiding UN my bunker from now on. This university can’t get it.
@Oh lawd Damnit. *in
@Anonymous when i first read that comment I thought you wanted to hide in a UN bunker…was trying to figure out where that would be… by the UN building I guess? then I thought you meant that the UN couldn’t get into Columbia (I didn’t know it had applied– maybe it should have been an athlete.)
then I read your correction and thought the fix was for “this university can’t get *in*” like Columbia couldn’t get in to the UN. which is natural, it not being a country…or it was banned for having racists and cheaters?
aaaaand then I got it.
finals have fried my brains, okay? being distracted by all this breaking news is NOT helping me focus. Bwog can you like stop posting breaking news until I finish my paper? is that too much to ask for? #unreasonableness #finalsdrivingmecrazyyyy
@in all seriousness... how am i supposed to study for finals when so much shit is hitting so many different fans
(also, your captcha system fucking blows)
@ivyleagueexperience ready for the Orgo?
@so basically this week has been a category 5 shitstorm
@anon This must be the best news week at columbia since ’68
@Rob Maybe so. But 1968 was legendary and epochal. Some have argued – Eric Foner – that the student riots of ’68 precipitated a major break from Columbia’s past, and by proxy, was a seminal move toward modernity.
@Anonymous Writing a paper due friday about the columbia student protests in 1968 and contemporary bwog and spec communication/conflict! Glad someone else is making the tenuous connection… :-) As for accommodating this week’s shitstorm in my paper… ugh just fuck all this discriminatory trolling and shaming… how can anyone speak across such loud voices that suspend their [often awful] judgments in the hidden safety of anonymity? Good luck with focusing on finals y’all!
@But what about NUTELLA?
@guys... they now have nutella snacks in the vending machines
@Anonymous You guys must be underclassmen…the drug bust was definitely a bigger deal around here. All the crazy shit always happens during finals.
@smh The trolls are coming. The trolls are coming!
@Anonymous what next, we’re going to find out they were racist athletes too?
@The Dark Hand And they all wrote for Spec