Manhattan ? Kansas State University is investigating allegations that as many as two-thirds of the students in a large Introduction to Sociology class cheated on daily quizzes.

Honors System Director Phil Anderson said his office learned of the suspected cheating in the class of about 200 about two weeks ago from the class’ instructor. Members of the class identified the instructor as Sara Fisher.

Fisher, a graduate teaching assistant, declined to talk to the school’s student newspaper, the Kansas State Collegian, which reported on the allegations Friday. A phone call to Fisher’s office by The Associated Press wasn’t immediately returned Friday, and her home phone rang unanswered.

Anderson declined to say what happened, instead referring questions to the undergraduate honor system section of the school’s Web site.

According to the site, the teaching assistant for the sociology class gave a daily quiz as a way of taking attendance. Students gathered in small groups to discuss the quiz and decide as a group on the correct answers.

After the group discussion, the teacher provided the correct answers and then told the students to enter their individual scores next to their name in the group’s folder.

According to the Web site, the teaching assistant discovered that about one-third of the groups were recording perfect scores for each member of the group. Another one-third of the groups were beginning to slip into that pattern.

After talking to Anderson, the teaching assistant gave the class one more quiz and collected it without providing the correct answers, with the intent of comparing those scores to previous test scores.

Matt Suellentrop, a freshman in business administration, who was interviewed by the Collegian, said Fisher told the class that she suspected students had cheated by recording perfect quiz scores every day or by writing in scores for absent group members.

When the teaching assistant addressed the class, she also urged students to make an appointment to talk to her if they were in a group that was participating dishonestly in the quizzes. About 45 students signed up to meet with her at the end of the class and later many others sent e-mails to make appointments, according to the school’s Web site.

Anderson said a staff member was in the process of interviewing every member of the class.

Anderson said he didn’t expect any student would receive an XF grade, which is an indication on the student’s academic record that the student failed the class because of dishonest academic conduct.

“The university is attempting to use the experience to educate our students that honesty and integrity is important in academic matters as well as personal matters,” Anderson said.

However, Anderson said he expected some members of the class would be required to take the school’s Academic Integrity course after the investigation is completed.

Students who have received the XF grade must pass the academic integrity class to have the X removed from their academic records. The F remains permanently on the transcript. Other students who do not receive the XF grades sometimes are asked to take the class.

Anderson said the investigation involved the most widespread allegation of cheating at the university since the school initiated the undergraduate honor system in fall of 1999.