Cell Phone Policy

            
Leave Communication Devices at Home on Exam Day

 

Contacts:         Ian Carlson, MDPT Coordinator

                        909/869-4676, iccarlson@csupomona.edu

                        Susan E. Ashe, Ed.D, Director of Judicial Affairs

                        909/869-3462, seashe@csupomona.edu

 

 

In response to the increased potential for cheating and to address discourteous behavior in testing situations, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and Judicial Affairs are reminding students that cell phones, pagers, and other communication devices are not allowed in the Mathematics Diagnostic Placement Test (MDPT).  Students seen with such devices after the verbal warning is given at the beginning of each session will have their test confiscated and they will be dismissed from the testing area.  Their test will not be scored and they will be referred to Judicial Affairs for possible sanctions, up to and including suspension from the California State University system.

“We hate to take such strict actions, because probably 99% of Cal Poly Pomona students who take our tests do so appropriately, “said Nora Babinski, former MDPT Coordinator.  “However, recent actions by some students make us toughen the standards for test security and so that everyone is able to take the exams on a level playing field.”

“As hard as it is to believe,” reported David Johnson, former Director of Judicial Affairs, “we have received reports of students calling or text messaging their friends during exams.  It’s impossible for a proctor to know if they’re simply setting up lunch dates or getting help with problems on the test.  At one CSU campus, a student even took a photo of his exam and mailed it to a friend!  He was discovered when the phone rang with the returned, completed, test.”

Johnson went on to say that such situations are rare, but do occur.  “In the majority of first offenses for academic dishonesty,” he said, “ the student is placed on disciplinary probation, usually for an academic year.  However, when academic dishonesty occurs at this level, it shows a greater intent to deceive and is dealt with more severely.  Students who cheat on the MDPT or Graduate Writing Test, for example, are usually denied the opportunity to take the test for at least an additional quarter and are often suspended from the CSU for anywhere from one to four quarters.  Obviously, either sanction can delay graduation significantly.”

While some students are trying to cheat on the test, others are simply rude.  As students enter the testing area, and before the exam begins, a test administrator reads a statement reminding people to put away all communication devices and to turn them off.  Setting them on vibrate mode is not an option, Babinski noted, because in a recent exam, a student had his cell phone, set to vibrate, in his backpack, but the battery was running out of power and was beeping repeatedly, causing a disturbance for many students.   Other students have put the phones away, but left them on, letting them ring when someone calls because they know it will forward to a message service.  One student had her alarm go off in the middle of the test, even though she had set it on vibrate.  The alarm told all who heard it at 11:00am that it was time for her to get up.

“Taking the MDPT can be stressful enough,” Babinski commented.   “Adding noisy cell phones or pagers is a distraction we just don’t need.”

“Another reason we were asking students to turn off their phones is to be assured they were not using other functions, such as calculators, cameras, and text messaging,” she continued  “If the camera is found out and on, sadly, we have to assume the student is cheating.”

The best advice when coming to campus for the GWT or MDPT is to simply leave that communication device in the car or at home.  Communication with the outside world can be reestablished within minutes of leaving the exam site.   And no one will have to guess if the message is about a double-double or a square root.