All of UBC and UBC Okanagan's academic and non-academic discipline reports from 1996-2015 are available online for your perusal (thanks to /u/yvery for reminding me!). They range from your standard forged medical note to elaborate, ostentatious and sometimes horrifically stupid ideas. We've hand-picked some highlights from just the past few years so you can feel better about yourself... or maybe worse if you made the list.
2010/11
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct in a number of courses by capturing an image of a date-stamped title page of an assignment and then submitted the assignments late. The student then used this image as evidence that they had handed in the assignment on time at the departmental drop-box and claimed that it had been lost by the department to avoid penalties.
Discipline: A mark of zero for the written assignments. A mark of zero in the course for submission of two written assignments in the same manner. A suspension from the university for four months.
Offence: A student committed non-academic misconduct by creating fraudulent tickets to a first year social event on campus and sold some of them to make a profit.
Discipline: A letter of reprimand.
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by removing other students’ homework assignments in a course from the pile where the class was handing them in. They subsequently erased their names and student numbers, added their own name and student number on the cover sheet and also altered the answers on some of those assignments. They then submitted the other students' work as their own.
Discipline: A mark of zero in the course and a suspension from the university for eight months.
2011/12
(We'd like to stress that the following situation is neither funny nor brave and should not be taken so lightheartedly as to be called “dumb.” It's been included because of its uniquely frightening scope. Trigger warning: repeated harassment).
Offence: A student committed non-academic misconduct by harassing a faculty member through email and telephone communications in spite of being told to cease contact by Campus Security.
Discipline: Instructed to cease contact with the faculty member in any form or manner and at any personal or professional level. Required to seek professional service from a licensed medical practitioner regarding the student's behavioural health.
Offence: The student committed non-academic misconduct by attending a public lecture presented by the same faculty member, in violation of the terms of the president’s letter.
Discipline: A registration block was placed on the student's transcript to prevent future registration until a medical report regarding their behavioural health assessment is submitted.
Offence: The student committed non-academic misconduct by (i) confronting the family of the same faculty member in a public place in a verbally aggressive and threatening manner as well as (ii) contacting the faculty member repeatedly through phone calls and voicemails, in violation of the terms of the president’s letter.
Discipline:A permanent registration block and notation of non-academic misconduct entered on the student's transcript, and that restrictions on their ability to enter or carry out activities upon university premises or use university facilities be upheld.
2012/13
Offence: A student committed non-academic misconduct by taking and using other students’ parking passes.
Discipline: Restricted from parking on campus until end of year, paid a fine which represented the value of the stolen parking passes and suspended from the university for four months.
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by using a textbook to help write an examination (really curious how they thought they were going to pull off looking at a textbook during an exam).
Discipline: A mark of zero in the course and a suspension from the university for 12 months.
2013/14
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by (i) plagiarizing an assignment from another student and submitting it as their own work as well as (ii) forging an email to the second student as though it originated from the course instructor regarding an appointment with them to discuss the plagiarized assignment.
Discipline: A mark of zero in the course and a suspension from the university for 12 months.
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by having unauthorized material in their possession during a final examination, using the material in writing the examination and then destroying it after the examination invigilator confiscated it from them (they destroyed it after it was confiscated. That's dedication).
Discipline: A mark of zero for the course and a suspension from the University for eight months.
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by taking another student’s homework assignment, erasing the student’s name and student number, writing their own name on the assignment and submitting it as their own work.
Discipline: A mark of zero in the course and a suspension from the University for eight months.
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by logging into another student’s course accounts in two courses and then submitting poorly answered questions that might have negatively affected that student’s grade (I, for one, would pay good money to see these answers).
Discipline: A letter of reprimand.
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by submitting a PhD dissertation that contained numerous significant sections that were copied from either their own M.Sc. thesis or were plagiarized from other publications after spending almost ten years working on that PhD dissertation.
Discipline: Barred from applying for readmission for two years.
Offence: A student committed non-academic misconduct in violation of the Student Code of Conduct by manufacturing of fraudulent parking passes.
Discipline: Required to pay a fine. Lost on-campus parking privileges for the remainder of the academic career at the university.
Offence: A student committed non-academic misconduct in violation of the Student Code of Conduct by attempting to join the graduation procession even though they had not attained graduation status.
Discipline: Denied the right to access or use any of the university’s lands, equipment, facilities, services, activities, programs, meetings or events as well as those held by, on or in association with the university until the end of the academic year.
Offence: A student committed non-academic misconduct by disrupting the operations of Campus Security and posting a demeaning message on Twitter while representing themselves as a member of the UBC Board of Governors (we've all been there).
Discipline: Required to provide written letters of apology to Campus Security and to the UBC Board of Governors.
2014/15
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by hiring another person to take the TOEFL test for him/her and submitting the test results to UBC as his/her own in order to gain admission to UBC.
Discipline: Expelled and barred from re-applying for admission to UBC until Jan 1, 2016.
Note: this happened eight times in 2014/15.
Offence: A student was alleged to have committed academic misconduct by making arrangements to cheat with another student via cellphone communication on a midterm examination, and attempted to make arrangements involving his/her family to influence the outcome of the allegation.
Outcome: The student is currently absent from Canada for an indefinite period, a note has been placed on his/her file preventing him/her from registering for any classes in future until a hearing is scheduled.
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by pre-arranging to receive screenshots from another student of the questions and answers from a final examination and then utilized in an unauthorized manner during his/her seating of the examination.
Discipline: A mark of zero in the course and a suspension from the university for eight months. The student committed a second act of academic misconduct by altering a midterm examination for re-grading after the examination was returned to him/her. Discipline: A mark of zero in the course and the period of suspension extended by 4 months*.
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by purchasing a paper from his/her private tutor and submitting that paper which turned out to be plagiarized from another student.
Discipline: A mark of zero in the course and a suspension from the University for 4 months.
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by submitting a laboratory assignment in a course that contained software code that was plagiarized from another student, and that the student submitted a second laboratory assignment that contained another student’s data set in the same course.
Discipline: A mark of zero in the course
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by accessing two different cellphones during a final examination, one of which was observed to have exam-associated material on the screen.
Discipline: A mark of zero in the course and a suspension from the University for 8 months*.
Offence: A student committed academic misconduct by submitting a paper for a course in which he/she used unauthorized sources; and submitting a paper for the same course where the citations appeared to have been falsified; and submitting two papers in another course that contained plagiarized sources.
Discipline: A grade deduction for both courses and a suspension from the university for four months.
Offence: A student committed non-academic misconduct by sending threatening messages aimed at the university to be posted on the UBCO Confessions website.
Discipline: Make financial restitution to cover the costs of additional security and staffing coverage; a suspension from the university for four months.
Offence: A student committed non-academic misconduct by taking a fellow student’s cell phone and subsequently harassing that student.
Discipline: A suspension from the university for eight months.
Offence: A student committed non-academic misconduct by causing a disturbance, assaulting a campus pub manager and refusing to comply with direction from University staff.
Discipline: Required to seek counselling and provide confirmation letter from counsellor upon completion. Restricted from campus pub until a designated date. Required to make financial restitution for damages.
Share this article
