Ryerson University Facebook Incident Over, For Now

Toronto- Following weeks of heavy back and forth charges the Toronto University that charged a student for academic misconduct in connection with a Facebook posting is finally breathing a sigh of relief.
Ryerson University dodged a heavy public relations bullet when the decided at the last minute not to expel student Chris Avenir for his posting on the Facebook Internet Web site.  Avenir posted information that his college professor felt violated the schools academic honesty policy last fall.
The University finally ruled on March 18th that they would not be expelling Mr. Avenir but that his charge of academic misconduct would remain.  This was seen as a hollow victory by some, but one that left many with negative feelings and impressions about the University as a whole.

Chris Avenir, a bright, honest, first-year engineering student at Ryerson University, has been in the news because he was accused of cheating by setting up an online study group on the Facebook Web site. Anyone can get an account on Facebook, a Web site designed for friends to keep in touch. In universities, it has become the modern version of a coffee shop and study group.
Cheating is a serious crime. One hundred forty-seven students used Facebook to discuss one of their engineering classes, and only Avenir was charged with cheating by one solitary professor. All Avenir did was set up a group which his classmates joined. He almost got expelled for it. In an unjust result, Avenir was given a failing grade for the homework portion of the class (lowering his overall grade in the class from A to B), was ordered to attend a workshop on academic integrity, and now has a disciplinary notice placed on his transcript.
That's what show trials do. Until the school apologizes to him, I hope Chris Avenir will appeal to the school senate. And if no one at Ryerson apologizes, Avenir should quit and go a school worthy of the title "university."

A student who attracted international media attention when he was accused of academic misconduct on Facebook will not be expelled from Toronto’s Ryerson University.
The school e-mailed its decision to first-year engineering student Chris Avenir Tuesday afternoon.
Avenir said he felt relieved when he read the decision. He was targeted by Ryerson when he became the administrator for a Facebook group last semester.

A new website will provide an anonymous way for students to study online, and it was all inspired by the Ryerson student who almost got expelled for running a Facebook study group.
Thornhill-based web designer Evgeny Kalashnikov, 18, is the creator of www.thestudygroups.com. He said he'd been thinking about creating a website like this for a while, and hearing about Chris Avenir motivated him to make it happen.
"Expelling someone for a study group is nonsense," he said.