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A freshman at Ryerson University in Toronto has been charged with cheating for running a Facebook study group and could be expelled pending a faculty hearing on Tuesday.

Chris Avenir, an 18-year-old computer engineering student denies the cheating allegation and said he joined the online chemistry study group Dungeons/Mastering Chemistry Solutions last fall. He later became administrator of the group.

Ryerson’s Kerr Hall quad
(Photo Credit: Ryerson University)

He described the group as a place on the Internet where students could ask questions about chemistry assignments. "This isn't any different from any library study groups or peer tutoring that has been happening," he told the CBC News.

A total of 146 students used the group to help each other with chemistry assignments. Avenir is charged with one count of academic misconduct for helping to organize the group, and 146 counts for every student who were members of the group.

Ryerson spokesman James Norrie would not comment specifically on the case but did say it's the university's responsibility to make sure students are doing their own work. "We want them to achieve. But that also means that they sometimes have to do the hard work of learning and not take the easy way out," he said.
 
Norrie said the university understands Facebook and its groups. "This is not a bunch of old academics sitting around a table saying, 'Oh, this scares us.' That's not what's happening," he said.

Students are surprised by the university's reaction to the Facebook study group. "They're just trying to cut him down, and I don't even know why this prof is doing this," said Evan Boudreau, a second-year journalism student. "It's just completely ridiculous."