Prof gives last year's exam to marketing class

Students in Marketing 101 think they have been robbed. Assistant Marketing Professor Deborah Mitchell "accidentally" administered the same midterm exam as last year, with an added case-study, to the students in both of her Marketing 101 lectures last week. Mitchell told her 4 p.m. class yesterday that while she and her teaching assistants took "elaborate security measures" to ensure the fairness of last Wednesday's exam, many students had an "advantage" since they had seen copies of the exam before it was given. But the students did nothing illegal. For $1.50, the exam was available on file at the University's Tutoring Center for any student who wanted a copy. "No student did anything wrong," Wharton sophomore Barry Freeman said last night. "It was bad decision-making by the professor." Mitchell told the class she admired those who came forward and told her the two exams were the same. Students blamed Mitchell for the entire fiasco and did not understand how she could have "accidentally" given the same test. "[The exam] was taken word for word from last year's . . . exam," Wharton sophomore Lawrence Berger said last night. "She shifted the blame to the students, [but] it's a professor's duty to have a fair test." Since the exam included three parts that matched last year's exam and a case-study that "no one had seen before," Mitchell told the class she would only grade the case-study and throw out the first three sections of the exam. She added she would count the midterm for less than its orignal weight of 20 percent of the grade. Freeman said he does not support Mitchell's decision and feels that students should either get perfect scores or the entire exam should be thrown out. Berger added that the whole thing was "not very fair," because students who had seen the exam prior to its administration could finish the first three parts quickly and had "more time to spend on the case." But one student defended Mitchell's decision. "She's going to do anything possible to make sure this doesn't hurt anybody," said a College junior, who requested anonymity because the tests have not been graded yet. "It was a mistake and mistakes happen." And many students praised Mitchell's teaching skills calling her "well-liked," "captivating" and "entertaining." "She shattered peoples' image of her," said a College senior who also requested not to be identified. And while Mitchell told the class she was "sorry that this happened," she refused to comment further after class. Wharton Vice Dean Janice Bellace said last night it is "unusual" and "unwise" to reuse an exam in a large introductory course. "It is the policy of this school to caution professors against reusing exam questions because old exams frequently are in circulation despite professors efforts to retain all copies," she said. Bellace added that she will "investigate the matter and take appropriate action."

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