This month Harvard finally resolved all the student disciplinary cases resulting from the infamous exam cheating scandal of the Spring 2012 semester which the university first announced in August 2012 here.

Harvard announced that approximately 140 students were suspected of cheating.  Half of this group were ultimately found in violation of the honor code and suspended (which Harvard calls “required to withdraw”) for two to four semesters. One quarter of these accused students received disciplinary probation. You can read all the published details of the disciplinary sanctions here.

What should other students and parents around the country learn from this situation? First, honor code and disciplinary code violations occur at all colleges with all types of students across the entire country. Next, some of these violations can be very serious – including suspension or expulsion from the university – and impact the students future education and career. Surely, none of these Harvard students imagined their “sharing” or “collaboration” were going to result in this complete disruption of their lives for months and even years to come.