MUMBAI: A copying incident last year ended very differently from the tragedy at IIT Bombay last week. An institute professor shared a colleague’s experience on social media, in which a student was caught with a smartphone. Though the institute authorities were informed immediately, the teachers only collected his smartphone and allowed him to continue writing the exams. His privacy was also taken into account, added the note.Mentioning how they handled the case, the professor, in his account, shared how empathy, dignity and integrity successfully guided a student away from unethical conduct. The student did not score well in the paper, but did well in other subjects, said the note, but is now “flourishing” and still messages him on Guru Pournima; it added.Narrating the incident, the professor mentioned in the note, “Last year, my teaching assistant (TA) and I caught a student cheating using his smartphone and smartwatch during the final exam. The TA noticed when the student’s screen light reflected in his glasses twice. We immediately reported the incident to our faculty WhatsApp group… We collected his smartphone and allowed the student to write the exams. After the exam, we met the student in person and asked him to show how many questions he had written using his smartphone.”It further said the student was informed that his actions were against the institute’s rules. The student was asked whether it would be acceptable to award zero marks for the sections completed using a smartphone while assigning appropriate marks for the remainder of the paper. “Throughout the process, strict measures were taken to protect the student’s privacy, with only the faculty adviser and the department head informed of the situation. The student was subsequently asked to submit an apology and a written assurance against future malpractice,” the note stated.While the institute’s faculty forum (IFF) has issued a statement in support of Prof Doolla and taken out solidarity marches, a section of the community also questioned the move. “The press release (issued by IFF) went beyond a limited demand for procedural fairness when it stated that the student ‘was indulging in an academic malpractice’ and that the faculty member was ‘merely discharging his academic duties’,” a professor said in a statement shared on a faculty forum.
