BUZZ
Professors point to cheating, poor math skills, and over-reliance on A.I.
The number of University of California Berkeley students who failed a computer science course this past spring semester was “significantly higher” than previous terms, according to a recent report.
According to The Daily Californian, a whopping 35 percent failed the introductory course “The Beauty and Joy of Computing” (designed for students “with minimal prior exposure to computer science), and just under 11 percent in “The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs,” an intro to programming class.
Computer science department guidelines note that “7% of students in lower division courses [including the courses noted], should receive D’s and F’s,” and that “a typical GPA for a lower division course will fall in the range 2.8 – 3.3.”
(“Guidelines” generally are of a non-mandatory nature; however, the article quotes “should” and “will” which indicate the opposite. The College Fix reached out to article author Litong Deng for clarification, but did not get a response.)
Professor Dan Garcia, who taught both of the courses, said this past spring close to 30 students were busted for cheating on take-home exams. He blamed the “vast increase” in cheating on students’ use of A.I.
“[I]t’s students who are leaning a little too hard on [A.I.] to do their work for them, and then at exam time just really aren’t ready,” Garcia said.
Gireeja Ranade, who taught “Optimization Models in Engineering” in the spring, concurred with Garcia’s assessment, describing the semester as “differently challenging.”
Prerequisites for Ranade’s class include linear algebra and vector calculus; however, she said “many students struggled” with the former, with one telling her when they took the class it had an “’open-internet, open-AI policy’ for homework and exams.”
Garcia and Ranade are signatories to a letter demanding the University of California system again use standardized tests for admissions — mainly due to students’ unpreparedness in the mathematics realm.
Ranade and Garcia have both noticed the decline of student engagement in classes as well. Ranade said office hours used to be “overflowing,” but this semester, she and her TAs noticed “very low engagement” in office hours, despite frequently encouraging students to attend.
Garcia found a similar lack of attendance in his office hours over the past two semesters.
“I used to have full office hours, and for the first time, I was having nobody come to my office hours,” Garcia said. “It was just so surprising to sit in my office alone.”
Looking forward, both professors are rethinking their classes.
Garcia plans to “advertise” what happened in spring 2026 to his future classes on day one, while also trying to find a way to identify students who need extra remedial support.
The letter signed by the professors says the “SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity,” but instead “a prerequisite for it.”
It adds that “failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome.”
MORE: Introductory high school math curriculum: ‘Mathematics can be subjective’
