TF Charged With Exam Leak

A teaching fellow allegedly leaked information Monday about the final exam for a popular government class, leading course heads to rewrite the exam one day before the test date.

Students who attended a Government 1730, “War and Politics” review session Monday led by teaching fellow Yong W. Ryu said he gave away information about identifications and essay questions that would appear on the exam.

“He didn’t tell us exactly what the exam prompts were, but he gave us an idea about what they would have been about,” Anthony C. Ugwu-Oju ’07 said as he left the exam yesterday morning. “If what he said hadn’t been changed, it would have been a pretty easy test.”

In an e-mail sent Tuesday to students enrolled in the class, head teaching fellow Erin M. Simpson alerted students that information concerning the content of the final exam had been revealed.

“Please be advised that the final exam will be rewritten to ensure a fair test of the learning of all students taking this course,” Simpson wrote.

The next day, Simpson posted the original exam on the course website, explaining to students in the course that she had done so “in the interest of fairness.”

Ugwu-Oju said Ryu’s discussion of the test material was “kind of odd.”

“He definitely, I think, gave out more information than he should have,” Ugwu-Oju said. “He may have not known it was the wrong thing to do.”

Ryu would not confirm or deny yesterday whether he released material on the original final exam during the review session.

“The teaching staff are investigating this matter now. Until the investigation is finished, I should not really comment on it at all,” Ryu wrote in an e-mail. “At this stage, no one knows of the exact nature of the problem, as well as who should be blamed.”

Richard J. Powell ’05, another student in the class who attended Monday’s review session, confirmed that Ryu had given students information about the content of the exam.

According to Powell, Ryu said that he had seen a list of essay questions for the exam prior to the review.

“He could give us the broad question, but couldn’t give us the narrow strokes,” Powell said.

In addition to providing information about the essay questions, Powell said, Ryu also discussed the identifications that wold appear on the test.

“He gave us not exact, but pretty specific information about what the ID’s were, about maybe half of them,” Powell said.

All of the TFs for “War and Politics” except Ryu—David M. Margolis, Gregg A. Peeples and Simpson—arrived at the Sackler Museum lecture hall for the exam yesterday morning. Margolis declined to comment on Ryu’s absence.

Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs Stephen P. Rosen ’74, who teaches the course, wrote in an e-mail yesterday morning that the teaching staff learned of the problem Tuesday evening but would not comment further on the allegations against Ryu.

“I am trying to determine what happened,” Rosen wrote.

Simpson also declined to comment yesterday.

—Staff writer Evan H. Jacobs can be reached at ehjacobs@fas.harvard.edu