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Easy Marks: Cracking a University’s Academic Integrity Con by Catherine Wagner
Every year, millions of students pay enormous sums to pursue a college education. Most have no idea how easily a single false cheating accusation can derail their dreams. Shocked, shamed, and silenced, they watch their futures crumble in the university kangaroo courts of “academic integrity.”
Catherine Wagner was an enthusiastic, top-performing student when she unwittingly walked into a trap. She provided authorized aid to a classmate on one part of one homework question, as her professors specifically encouraged. A grader later flagged their answers as “similar,” and both students were accused of cheating. Innocent, and certain that she would be exonerated, Catherine had no idea that one professor’s reputation for convicting “cheaters” would supersede a fair hearing.
Despite the support of eight PhD experts from across the U.S., she was dragged through her university’s academic integrity machine on so-called “evidence” of similarities—even something as absurd as simply using “H2O” to abbreviate water.Under threat of expulsion, Catherine was forced to defend her reputation and career prospects. Along the way, she discovered that the University seemed to repeatedly break federal law, spy on her, and reject science in favor of fallacies and falsehoods.
Using statistics and behavioral science to scrutinize audio recordings and university emails, Catherine systematically unmasked the unthinkable: a confidence scheme fueling clandestine research on more than 2,000 unsuspecting students for over a decade.
Catherine Wagner was an enthusiastic, top-performing student when she unwittingly walked into a trap. She provided authorized aid to a classmate on one part of one homework question, as her professors specifically encouraged. A grader later flagged their answers as “similar,” and both students were accused of cheating. Innocent, and certain that she would be exonerated, Catherine had no idea that one professor’s reputation for convicting “cheaters” would supersede a fair hearing.
Despite the support of eight PhD experts from across the U.S., she was dragged through her university’s academic integrity machine on so-called “evidence” of similarities—even something as absurd as simply using “H2O” to abbreviate water.Under threat of expulsion, Catherine was forced to defend her reputation and career prospects. Along the way, she discovered that the University seemed to repeatedly break federal law, spy on her, and reject science in favor of fallacies and falsehoods.
Using statistics and behavioral science to scrutinize audio recordings and university emails, Catherine systematically unmasked the unthinkable: a confidence scheme fueling clandestine research on more than 2,000 unsuspecting students for over a decade.
452 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2021
2 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Wagner
35 books31 followersCatherine Wagner teaches creative writing at Miami University in Ohio. Her publications include Macular Hole (Fence Books, 2004), Imitating (Leafe Press, 2004), Exercises (811 Books, 2004), Miss America (Fence Books, 2001). Individual poems have appeared in or are forthcoming in Black Clock, Chicago Review, Fence, Five Fingers Review, New Review, and Soft Targets, among others, and in several anthologies including Isn’t It Romantic: 100 Love Poems by Younger American Poets, (Verse Press 2004). She’s working on a new book of poems, and editing two anthologies, both to appear in 2007 from Fence: one of poems by mothers and another entitled A Poetry and Politics Primer.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 21, 2022
"I felt hopeful... similarities did not imply cheating... correlation did not imply causation."
In an exposé worthy of the best investigative journalism—one that should rock the academic world (if it hasn’t already)—a top-notch double major in chemical and biomolecular engineering and Spanish language and literature shares her gut-wrenching experience of being falsely accused of cheating on a homework assignment. Her riveting memoir begins a month into Wagner’s sophomore year when a student grader flags one answer on a homework assignment as being “similar” to another student’s, a situation that could have been cleared easily with a modicum of science and common sense. Statistically speaking, it was highly likely that many more students had similar answers for the same question in the 189 homework papers submitted due to the STEM formatting and terminology issues inherent in the question and answer and because there were limited ways to answer the question. However, although the engineering department claimed early on that all these papers were checked against each other, Wagner’s calculations show it would take an extraordinary amount of hours to compare just this one answer in all 189 assignments.
After following “authorized aid” guidelines and discussing just one facet of the question flagged, Wagner and a student (identified throughout the book only as Student Z) would be assaulted by an academic integrity system that “bit by bit, would drag me into a dark underworld... and nearly swallow me whole.” Wagner and Student Z entered a down-the-rabbit-hole conundrum in which their similar answers, in reality, had different mathematical conclusions. Though Student Z’s final figure was correct, Wagner’s was not. Bit by bit, Wagner pulls back a veil to reveal a corrupt system engineered by three academics ironically seeking acclaim for their work in academic integrity, a scheme that subjected at least 2,000 students for over a decade to clandestine research that they did not give their permission to participate in. In other words, the system introduced to promote academic integrity at North Carolina State University was itself not adhering to the levels of integrity demanded of students. Plus, it was guilty of railroading young students with little life experience into submission . . .
Read more at The US Review of Books!
https://www.theusreview.com/reviews-1...
In an exposé worthy of the best investigative journalism—one that should rock the academic world (if it hasn’t already)—a top-notch double major in chemical and biomolecular engineering and Spanish language and literature shares her gut-wrenching experience of being falsely accused of cheating on a homework assignment. Her riveting memoir begins a month into Wagner’s sophomore year when a student grader flags one answer on a homework assignment as being “similar” to another student’s, a situation that could have been cleared easily with a modicum of science and common sense. Statistically speaking, it was highly likely that many more students had similar answers for the same question in the 189 homework papers submitted due to the STEM formatting and terminology issues inherent in the question and answer and because there were limited ways to answer the question. However, although the engineering department claimed early on that all these papers were checked against each other, Wagner’s calculations show it would take an extraordinary amount of hours to compare just this one answer in all 189 assignments.
After following “authorized aid” guidelines and discussing just one facet of the question flagged, Wagner and a student (identified throughout the book only as Student Z) would be assaulted by an academic integrity system that “bit by bit, would drag me into a dark underworld... and nearly swallow me whole.” Wagner and Student Z entered a down-the-rabbit-hole conundrum in which their similar answers, in reality, had different mathematical conclusions. Though Student Z’s final figure was correct, Wagner’s was not. Bit by bit, Wagner pulls back a veil to reveal a corrupt system engineered by three academics ironically seeking acclaim for their work in academic integrity, a scheme that subjected at least 2,000 students for over a decade to clandestine research that they did not give their permission to participate in. In other words, the system introduced to promote academic integrity at North Carolina State University was itself not adhering to the levels of integrity demanded of students. Plus, it was guilty of railroading young students with little life experience into submission . . .
Read more at The US Review of Books!
https://www.theusreview.com/reviews-1...
November 27, 2021
The spellbinding real-life story told by Catherine Wagner in her book, Easy Marks: Cracking a University’s Academic Integrity Con, left me speechless with shock at the injustice perpetrated against her and the other innocent students. I was very impressed by the brilliance with which the author countered her accusers with a cool-headed strategy based on logic and perseverance.
Catherine’s book is an outstanding example of investigative journalism. Standing alone to face her formidable accusers, she courageously exposes the wrongs perpetrated upon innocent students. What people like Carl Bernstein and Sydney Schanberg did, Wagner does single-handedly without the backing of the enormous resources that those journalists had. Her intelligent questioning is based on a foundation of extraordinarily detailed research and is supported by a presence of mind rarely seen in adults let alone in a 19 year old kid.
I believe that this is a very important book – since the fact that this book has documented these wrongful activities so publicly will deter the people in positions of power from further exploitation of the other students. It will force those in the position of power in the university to act more responsibly.
Catherine’s book is an outstanding example of investigative journalism. Standing alone to face her formidable accusers, she courageously exposes the wrongs perpetrated upon innocent students. What people like Carl Bernstein and Sydney Schanberg did, Wagner does single-handedly without the backing of the enormous resources that those journalists had. Her intelligent questioning is based on a foundation of extraordinarily detailed research and is supported by a presence of mind rarely seen in adults let alone in a 19 year old kid.
I believe that this is a very important book – since the fact that this book has documented these wrongful activities so publicly will deter the people in positions of power from further exploitation of the other students. It will force those in the position of power in the university to act more responsibly.
March 3, 2024
Unbelievable that this happened (might still be happening?!), but amazing investigative journalism to bring it to light.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews