The United States Military Academy at West Point is facing its worst cheating scandal since 1976, with more than 70 students accused of cheating on a calculus exam.
Seventy-two first-year cadets and one second-year cadet were accused of cheating on a calculus exam in May, USA Today reported on Monday. Instructors noticed the cheating after the students made the same mistake on the test.
Two of the cases were dismissed for lack of evidence, and four were dropped when the cadets resigned. Fifty-five of the remaining 67 cadets were admitted to the Willful Admission Program on Dec. 9. One official told the New York Times that the program is a sort of boot camp where students will be paired with a mentor and asked to write about their experiences. Those who complete it will be on probation for the rest of their time at the school. Three other cadets admitted to cheating but were not eligible for the program.
The remaining cadets will face a hearing in front of a board of other cadets to decide whether cheating took place. A separate board will determine punishments, which could include expulsion.
“The honor system at West Point is strong and working as designed,” Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, the academy’s superintendent, said in a statement. “We made a deliberate decision to uphold our academic standards during the pandemic. We are holding cadets to those standards.”
The last large cheating scandal the academy faced was in 1976 when 153 West Point cadets resigned or were expelled for cheating during an electrical engineering exam. The scandal involved third-year cadets. Ninety-two were later readmitted under a program that allowed them to complete a year of “useful service” outside of the academy.
