Pickens writes "Ryerson University student Chris Avenir is fighting charges of academic misconduct for helping run an online chemistry study group via Facebook last term, where 146 classmates swapped tips on homework questions that counted for 10 per cent of their mark. Avenir, 18, faces an expulsion hearing before the engineering faculty appeals committee at the Canadian University. Avenir said he joined the Facebook group last fall to get help with some of the questions the professor would give students to do online. As the network grew, he took over as its administrator, which is why he believes he alone has been charged. Kim Neale, the student union's advocacy co-ordinator, who will represent Avenir at the hearing admits the professor stipulated the online homework questions were to be done independently, but she said it has long been a tradition for students to brainstorm homework in groups, particularly in heavy programs such as law, engineering and medicine. "If this kind of help is cheating, then so is tutoring and all the mentoring programs the university runs and the discussions we do in tutorials," says Avenir."
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