Duplicate - Students need permission to get old exams

Policy just applies to College Students in the College of Arts and Sciences will no longer be able to obtain copies of old exams from the Tutoring Center, unless they have faculty permission to do so, College Dean Matthew Santirocco said Tuesday night. The policy decision, however, will not effect students in the Wharton School of Business, the Nursing School or the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Several faculty members approached Santirocco last semester and expressed concern over why they were not notified that their exams were available to students at the Tutoring Center. Many of the professors also requested that the service be halted. Staff members at the Tutoring Center are currently in the process of obtaining permission from College faculty members to hold copies of their old exams, Santirocco said. By Feb. 19, he added, he expects the Tutoring Center to have a record of which exams need to be withdrawn from the Old Exams room. The Tutoring Center and the deans of the four undergraduate schools will also meet that day to discuss policy regarding the exams. Until then, students must have their professors fill out permission slips before they can obtain exams used during previous semesters, Santirocco said. He added that the move to obtain "global faculty permission" before allowing students to get old exams would "protect the interests of the students as well as of the faculty." History Professor Bruce Kuklick said he does not think the Tutoring Center should have provided students with copies of old exams without faculty permission in the first place. And Associate Director of the Tutoring Center Bernadine Abad said her office is doing what is necessary to accommodate the faculty members' wishes. She explained that she saw the Tutoring Center staff playing "complementary roles" to faculty members. "We want to have a very close working relationship with the faculty," she said. Kuklick said, though, that he believes the Tutoring Center should not be providing copies of old exams at all. "We all know that there's a lot of cheating going on on this campus, in one form or another," he said. And while Kuklick said he does not think reviewing old exams is "cheating," it is "close enough to it." Director of Student Life Programs Terri White disagreed. "The old exams are an excellent source of materials that aid in the preparation for exams," she said. She also said that it was "a good thing" that students would have to approach their professors to get permission to obtain old exams. "My impression is that students are not always comfortable about approaching their professors," White said. "I hope that [the students' need to gain permission from their professors] will facilitate that process, and a positive relationship will come out of it," she added. Still, though, White was unable to comment on why copies of old exams are only being restricted from College students. Students said they were frustrated with the new requirement. College freshman Inez Ramos said she thinks it is "pretty sad" that she has to go through the process to get an exam. She said the old exams are "just supposed to be there -- to help us." "If the professors would write new exams for every exam they [were giving] then there wouldn't be this problem," Ramos added.