Academic disgrace and sporting glory are unfamiliar terms at Harvard. But on Friday, the university found itself experiencing both. Just as the Crimson were celebrating a surprise victory over New Mexico in the NCAA basketball tournament, news came that the school had been stripped of four national quiz tournament titles.
National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) announced that a member of Harvard's quiz bowl team, which competes in intercollegiate trivia competition, had improperly accessed questions used in its tournaments from 2009 to 2011.
The Harvard student, Andrew Watkins, had access to the NAQT administrative website as a writer of questions to be used in primary, middle and high school competitions. He is alleged to have seen the first 40 characters of questions presented to Harvard in tournaments they won several years in a row.
Harvard is not the only team to be accused of cheating, but it is the only team to have championships revoked.
"NAQT has uncovered evidence that four of its writers frequently accessed pages on NAQT's administrative website that contained clearly marked, substantive information about questions on which they were intending to – and subsequently did – compete," NAQT said in a statement.
Watkins was the president of the quiz team that dominated intercollegiate play, beating some teams by as many as 500 points in earlier NAQT tournaments. Now, however, those exemplary performances are moot, as the NAQT stripped Harvard of the 2009, 2010 and 2011 championships, which will now be given to different universities.
Watkins issued a statement, apologizing to the NAQT and his teammates while eluding to unstable mental health as a reason for his actions.
"My immaturity damaged my much-prized relationship with NAQT and cast undue doubt on three remarkable accomplishments by three Harvard teams. It will surprise no one that my mental health as an undergraduate was always on the wrong side of 'unstable' but that does not excuse my actions, nor does it ameliorate the damage done."
The scandal further tarnishes Harvard's reputation as one of the foremost academic institutions in the world, and adds to a list of several other academic and administrative controversies that have arisen in the past year.
In September 2012, two co-captains on Harvard's basketball team resigned from the team after they were alleged to have cheated with 280 other students on a take-home final exam. Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry were two of the Crimson's best players.
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