In a large general education class, about one-third of the students had an unfair advantage on a recent exam, but no one is being prosecuted for academic dishonesty.

A computer error allowed students in an Astro 001 (Astronomical Universe) section to view an exam and its answers before it was given, prompting the instructor to nullify the exam and discount all scores.

"In my opinion, roughly one-third of the class had an unfair advantage," said Chris Churchill, who teaches the course. It is the professor's job to make sure that students taking a test are on an even playing field, he said, and since this was obviously uneven, he decided to throw out the exam.

When a systems administrator for Churchill's department was changing file permissions two weeks before the exam, he accidentally made the exam itself accessible from the Web. Churchill normally posts exam keys after grades are returned so that students can review questions they missed.

"The professor, of course, is concerned that students who didn't look at the Web would do more poorly," said Norman Freed, associate dean of the Eberly College of Science. "Everyone agreed that the fairest thing to do would be to drop that second exam."

Mike Thomas (senior-psychology) is enrolled in the class for general education requirements and thought at first that he was being unfairly punished for the actions of his cheating classmates.

Thomas, who scored high on the test, said he would rather retake the exam than have it thrown out entirely, but when he learned of the computer error, he understood. "On the other hand," he said, "taking away my score isn't fair to me."

When Churchill checked the Web traffic to the exam, he saw that 75 to 100 students had been able to access it before the test was taken. "There are some people who didn't know it was the answer key -- they thought it was a practice test," Churchill said. Others admitted to viewing the test and when they found out it was a breach of integrity, apologized. Another group expressed concerns that they would be referred to the Office of Judicial Affairs, Freed said.

Eric Feigelson, an assistant department head of astronomy, received some complaints and concerns from students about the incident.

"We of course are going to make sure this never happens again," he said.

Each college has its own academic integrity committee, and it is up to the professor and that committee to decide if academic sanctions are necessary. A case only goes to Judicial Affairs if something more than a purely academic sanction is sought, like an XF grade (failed for cheating) or expulsion.

"I'm hoping they're learning a lesson here that's larger than anything I'm teaching in this class," Churchill said. "Sometimes you have to pay for other people's mistakes."