Moral Dilemma - Rat on a co-student or not?
 

Imagine the following situation if you will.

I have finished my Master's thesis on something I am passionate about. Because the faculty staff was short on personell, they asked me to work with another student in a team on it. I accepted this offer, although I knew I would be doing most of the work. So it happened. I did about 95% of the work, but I didn't really mind. Papers are a specialty of mines and I'm a control freak anyway, I like to monitor the quality of anything that has my name on it. Besides, like I said, the subject of the paper really is much more in my area of expertise than that of my co-student.

So everything went along fine. I went to most of the meetings with my supervisor alone because the supervisor was only at the university one day a week and my co-student had to work that day. The only thing that needed to be done was the final presentation of the thesis. We couldn't do it together because he wasn't done with all his courses yet. So I did it by myself, and he would do it by himself later on.

Now, after my presentation and about half an hour of questions the supervisor and co-reader say to me:

"We know you did all of the work. This thesis is good enough for one person but is not good enough to graduate two people. Because we know you did all the work, we are giving you the option of telling us you did all the work and erasing the name of the co-student from the paper. If you do not do this, you will both fail and have to make another paper or do a lot more work on this one"

This final session usually is just a formality. You can only fail if you royally screw it up and even then only because of something big like plagiarism. The thesis is pretty much okay'd before the session starts, otherwise they would have said to change something. My diploma is right there, all they need to do is sign it and give it to me. Because of this I'm about 50/50 on whether they're bluffing on the whole "you fail if you dont rat him out"-thing.

If I do rat him out, the co-student has to write a thesis on his own and possibly have some kind of penalty (although I highly doubt this). The co-student is not a friend of mines, but a nice guy nonetheless. I have no plans of ever seeing him after graduation.

I have three options as I see it:

1. Tell them they're wrong, we split the work 50/50.

2. Tell them they're right, but you accepted the division of responsibilities and that it's not fair to fail one of you. You both pass, or you both fail.

3. Tell them they're right, he really didn't do anything so he can't object too much to getting his name erased from the paper.

Re: Moral Dilemma - Rat on a co-student or not?
 

While I'm sure there is a wrench you're gonna throw at us at some point in this thread, I don't see the moral dilemma of telling the truth (i.e. you did 95% of the work). Credit him for his 5%.

I think he'll be better off for it.

Re: Moral Dilemma - Rat on a co-student or not?
 

I like optin two because its coming totally clean, and honestly, it's not like you get to pick if they both pass or fail, regardless of what you say. In option two the most likely scenario is that they'll say that they understand why you feel that way, but they're still passing you and making him do another paper...

Ray

Re: Moral Dilemma - Rat on a co-student or not?
 

Decision seems blindingly clear.

Re: Moral Dilemma - Rat on a co-student or not?
 

The faculty at your school are a bunch of pricks for setting this up the way they did and then telling you this at your presentation.

Didn't you hand in a draft at least a month or so prior to your presentation? Did they not say anything then?

Re: Moral Dilemma - Rat on a co-student or not?
 

I would tell them that they are being completely unreasonable here.

Re: Moral Dilemma - Rat on a co-student or not?
 

Option 2 and 3 are really the same, if you stop after telling them the truth.
They already know the truth, you said you went to almost all the meetings with your supervisor alone. The other guy should have made more of an effort to at least appear to be doing some of the work. This paper would have been good enough if they thought you had both contributed, they just don't want to pass somebody who didn't give an effort.

Re: Moral Dilemma - Rat on a co-student or not?
 

I think option 3 is pretty douche baggish, mostly because you were OK with him doing nothing during the process, so you can't turn around and pwn him now.

Re: Moral Dilemma - Rat on a co-student or not?
 

Option 2. If they were the ones who put you together in the first place, its not clear to me what kind of collaboration they expected. Option 2 (aka "the truth") sounds most reasonable to me.

If they want to fail other guy for not doing any work, that is up to them...you shouldn't be dragged into it. Sounds like you did your part.

Re: Moral Dilemma - Rat on a co-student or not?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I have finished my Master's thesis on something I am passionate about. Because the faculty staff was short on personell, they asked me to work with another student in a team on it.

[/ QUOTE ]

#1 wtf uni. does this? And why does them being short staffed have to do with you havinh to team up?
#2 wtf would you ever agree to this in the first place?
#3 are you saying this situation arose after you began work on your thesis?

This sounds like BS

I'm confused as to how this situation would ever come up in the first place.