Expelled students were not required to repay the school for their education and were allowed to finish their spring courses, but did not receive degrees from the Academy.

Six of the expelled midshipmen were also football players at the academy.

Another cheating scandal at Dartmouth College suggests that strength of evidence may also be a factor in determining how Harvard will proceed with the Government 1310 case.

In 2000, Dartmouth investigated 63 undergraduates after a visiting computer science professor accused students of cheating on a homework assignment by consulting with teaching assistants or looking at answers accidently posted on the course website. But Dartmouth’s honor board dropped all charges after it determined that there was not enough evidence to distinguish cheaters from students who misunderstood the assignment’s instructions.

Bloomfield, the physics professor at Virginia, said that almost invariably in cheating scandals, it becomes unclear where exactly the guilt lies. The investigation process often casts negative light on the professor and the university, alongside the guilty students.

“The mud that flies around with this stuff splatters everybody,” Bloomfield said. “You can’t tell who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.”

—Staff writer Gina K. Hackett can be reached at ghackett@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Rebecca D. Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@college.harvard.edu.