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SALT LAKE CITY -- "F" stands for failure, and it's the lowest grade you can get, until now.
Simon Fraser University in Canada now has the "FD," or "failure with dishonesty." You cheat, and you get those scarlet letters on your transcript.
"This is aimed really at the students, where it's really clear cut that they cheated," said John Francis, the associate vice president for academic affairs at the University of Utah.
Francis says a student could make the argument they didn't mean to plagiarize another's work--these are the days of Wikipedia after all--but it's another thing to outright cheat on a test.
Right now, if a University of Utah student cheats, Francis says it could end up in a dismissal from that class, a failing grade or even being forced to leave the university all together.
But maybe the "FD" is something the U should look at too.
"We want to be able to say when you leave here, you've earned the grade you've received. There shouldn't be any doubt about that," Francis said.
E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com
