To discipline or not.

THE RUCKUS OVER HARVARD SOPHOMORE Kaavya Viswanathan has gone silent in recent weeks, but it will brew anew if the college makes a decision to discipline her. Accused of plagiarizing material in her chick-lit book, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life, Viswanathan defended herself by saying that she did not intend to snag words from other authors. "When I was writing, I genuinely believed each word was my own," she said on NBC's The Today Show.

Since the alleged word-borrowing did not take place in a Harvard course, guidelines on the school's actions are unclear. In 2001, a student was forced off two student publications after she plagiarized material from Forbes, according to The Harvard Crimson. Harvard did not take disciplinary action against that student.

According to a spokesman, the college may or may not choose to put the Viswanathan matter before its disciplinary body. "We would never discuss an investigation by the Administrative Board of any student," says Robert Mitchell, director of Communications for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "We would not discuss whether an investigation exists or not."