At Ryerson University, academic administrators are handing out 147 academic charges for a study group hosted on Facebook.

The university is charging freshman Chris Avenir, a computer engineering student, with one count of academic misconduct for starting and running the group, and an additional 146 counts for each student in the group. Chris also has to appear before a committee on the possibility of being expelled, reports The Star.

The study group was used for students to share tips to help solve the chemistry problems worth 10 percent of their grade. Chris received a B in the class last fall, but after the professor found the Facebook group, changed his grade to an F.

Kim Neale, 26, the student union’s advocacy coordinator, says students are now scared to discuss anything related to their classes on Facebook:

“All these students are scared s—less now about using Facebook to talk about schoolwork, when actually it’s no different than any study group working together on homework in a library.”

The group was created solely to allow students to provide tips and guidance on problems, not for cheating and the sharing of answers. Students at Ryerson argue that if this study group is not allowed, then any form of study group can be cause for misconduct and tutoring must also be a form of academic dishonesty.

“Yet students argue Facebook groups are simply the new study hall for the wired generation.”

Student study groups have been part of college forever. Typically a small group of students would get together to share insights and provide help to others who may not be grasping a topic as fast. Now that the internet allows students to do this with more students at once, and faster, it is the new study group, and does not call for academic charges, suspensions or anything similar.

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