Columbia University’s decision to affirm a disciplinary hearing committee’s suspension of a biophysics student for one semester after he allegedly forged an exam book was “rationally based and not arbitrary and capricious,” a state appeals court has ruled.

An Appellate Division, First Department panel also found that the university had not acted irrationally when it rejected as “not credible” then-student Sai Bondalapati’s explanation for why he had marked up a physiology course test booklet in a certain way.