Chris Avenir, the Ryerson University student whose involvement in a Facebook study group set off an international debate about the difference between online collaboration and old-fashion cheating, will not be expelled.
A Ryerson faculty committee yesterday rejected a recommendation to kick out the first-year engineering student, ruling instead that he should get zero for the assignment in question and a disciplinary note on his file.
"To me this is a partial victory," said Kim Neale, advocacy co-ordinator for the Ryerson Students' Union who worked with Mr. Avenir on his case.
Ms. Neale said the case was troubling because it focused on a posting on the group's main page that asked members to "discuss/post solutions," rather than evidence that answers had been exchanged.
John Adair, Mr. Avenir's lawyer, said he and his client were disappointed with the ruling.
"Any punishment is not appropriate," he said.
Given the approach of final exams, he said, his client would take some time to decide whether to appeal the decision.
Mr. Avenir was singled out by the university for his role as the administrator of an online study group that attracted more than 140 members looking for help with chemistry homework assignments that accounted for 10 per cent of their mark.
When the course's professor — who had stipulated that work be done independently — found the site, he gave Mr. Avenir a failing grade for the course and charged him with academic misconduct.
The case has created a groundswell of online support for the 18-year-old, including an online petition, a Facebook support group and a website, chrisdidntcheat.com, that among other things is selling T-shirts, hats and buttons with the slogan.
James Norrie, director of the university's school of information technology management, said the buzz surrounding the case has distracted from the real issue at hand.
"As soon as you put the word Facebook onto an issue it seems to change the dynamic of the issue in terms of people's reading of it and interest in it," he said.
But others say Mr. Avenir and his classmates were just doing what students have done for eons around library tables and in study halls. The only difference is that this time their information swapping was done online where it could be traced.
