Below F Level

Since I’m currently teaching an undergraduate class in Management – and preparing for a profession in which teaching should be a regular job duty – I read with great interest a story in the Calgary Herald Online about a Canadian university that has started handing out grades that rank below an F in the scale of things. At MSU (and a number of other colleges and universities) an F is recorded as a “0” in your permanent record, representing zero grade points, so it was difficult for me to fathom how we could adapt such a grading convention here. However, on reading the story it became clear that we could; whether or not we would want to is another matter…

According to the online story, Simon Fraser University in British Columbia has introduced the grade of FD, which stands for “Failed, with Academic Dishonesty,” and will be awarding this new grade to anyone who is given a fail grade specifically because of academic cheating. Naturally, they will have to be caught first, and the cheating confirmed by the proper authorities, which means this isn’t a grade that individual professors will be handing out. The story goes on to say that the FD grade will remain on the offender’s transcript for the rest of their time at SFU and two years after graduation, which could negatively impact both the student’s chances of qualifying for post-graduate study and their job prospects…

I’m not sure such a thing could fly in the United States, although the story does note that the University of Alberta, Canada, already uses a similar system. In this country, I can’t help thinking than anyone who received such a grade – or, in some cases, the parents of any student who received such a grade – would immediately start legal proceedings, charging that this practice is unfair to cheaters (or unfair to their precious snowflakes, in the case of the parents), racist (if the cheater in question is or can be considered any type of minority) discriminatory (if the cheater in question has any trace of disability whatsoever) or defamatory (if the cheater and/or his/her parents think this will somehow reflect badly on any other aspect of their lives). This could easily lead to instances of cheating also being challenged in court, with all of the attendant expenses and wasted time that would entail. Although the measure would still be less harmful than simply pitching the cheater out of whatever institution they have sinned against – or rescinding their degree, if they’ve already left…

In the long run, I’m not sure the adoption of a specific degree to punish academic dishonesty is going to be very effective in preventing academic dishonesty; the research indicates that harsher punishments do not have a deterrent effect, and that only increased enforcement (with the attendant fear of being caught) is likely to have any effect in preventing offenses. Which means that a subscription to an anti-plagiarism service like Turn It In.com should have a greater impact than any new grade award. On the other hand, if an institution decides that it wants some form of punishment beyond simply inflicting a fail grade – but less severe than outright expulsion from the school – then the FD grade may have some utility. We’ll just have to wait and see if the reported levels of cheating at schools that employ such a method actually drop...