School cleared of cheating

After two months of wondering whether its students cheated on admissions exams the Kenan-Flagler Business School can relax.

None of its students was implicated in an Internet cheating scandal that involved 84 business students across the country.

The Graduate Management Admission Council announced the results of a two-month investigation Tuesday" cancelling the scores of students who had contributed material to the now-defunct Scoretop.com.

The council did not cancel the scores of any students in the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

""I would say that we are gratified that none of our students cheated"" said David Hofmann, dean of the school's Master of Business Administration program.

GMAC brought a copyright infringement suit against the Web site for publishing live"" questions — questions that were still appearing in admissions tests.

Scoretop charged for access to message boards where members could post test questions they had seen on the test.

After a $2.3 million ruling in July" GMAC took over the company and began looking into which students either posted live questions on the Web site or said that they had seen the Web site's material on their tests.

GMAC cancelled the scores of 12 test-takers who had contributed live material to the site and 72 students who had seen the material according to a press release.

The names of the students involved were released to schools Monday and were compared to admissions data.

Those who took the test and sent their scores to UNC had either been denied admission to the school or had not completed the application process Hofmann said.

Chris Privett spokesman for Duke University's Fuqua School of Business" said no Duke students' standing changed as a result of the investigation either.

But he said he wasn't surprised that a scandal like this happened.

""In this era of the Internet" I don't think anybody should be surprised that people use this technology for cheating" Privett said.

He added that, had there been any implications at Duke, they would have been handled through the school's honor system.

Hofmann said the investigation gives the school the opportunity to examine how it handles academic honesty.

It gives us a chance to reflect on our core values.""



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.