Civil engineering assignment drop boxes have been removed after a group of students in the Civil Engineering department were caught copying classmates’ assignments last semester.

Dr. Novakowski, head of the Civil Engineering department, said the incident involved students stealing other students’ assignments out of an assignment drop -box and copying answers.

He said the incident involved a fourth-year technical elective class, but declined to comment on further details.

“I’d really prefer to not state what happened other than that it was a breach of academic integrity involving those assignment drop boxes and as a result those drop boxes will be removed,” he said.

“The matter was dealt with according to academic policy.”

According to the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, punishment for academic integrity ranges from an oral or written warning to loss of percentage or total grade of the assignment or overall course.

According to civil engineering student Alexandra Benko, Sci ’13, a similar incident happened in a third-year engineering course she took last year.

A student was caught cheating, and was unable to receive above a 55 per cent in the course. The professor announced the incident then held a talk about academic integrity in her class, she said.

“Cheating like this usually happens once a year,” she said. “Usually a person gets caught, they basically fail the course, and everyone is scared out of it for the rest of the semester.”