6 U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER
FEBRUARY 1988
6 U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 1988
CHEATING: Student survey
Question YES NO
Do you think there is a general attitude% 4''%
on campus that cheating is OK as long as 53% 47
you don't get caught?
Do you think it is easy to cheat on most %Of 6O%
exams at this university?
Have you ever cheated? 40% 6 %
OTHERSURVEYS
A GW Hatchet random survey... of 95 stu-
dents concluded almost 66 percent of those
polled have cheated to some degree on an
exam at least once at George Washington U.
Forty-four percent of those students have
cheated more than twice and 20 percent of them
said they cheat on 50 percent of the exams they
take. Rich Katz-The Hatchet, George
Washington U., DC
More than 25 percent of students... engage
in academic dishonesty on one or more occa-
sions during their undergraduate studies, ac-ord.
ing to a 1986 survey reported by the Pennsylva-
nia State U. Collegian. The poll was conducted
by Elizabeth Nuss, executive director of the
National Association of Student Personnel Admi-
nistrators in Washington, D.C. Carol Chase-
The Collegian, Pennsylvania State U.
Cheating is acceptable. .. in some situations,
said 25 percent of 211 undergraduates poled by
the Loyola U.Maon, and 97 percent of61tlaw
students surveyed said cheating is never accept-
able. Forty-six percent of the undergraduates
said they rarely cheated, 44 percent said they
never cheated and the remaining 10 percent
cheated sometimes or often. Rich
Zagrzecki-The Maroon, Loyola U.,
LA
The number of academic dishonesty cases- .
. especialy plagiarism -- reported at the U. of
Southern California has increased 50 percent,
said Valerie Paton, assistant dean of student
affairs and director of student conduct. Last year,
38 percent of the academic dishonesty cases
reported concemed plagiarism - an increase of
17 percent from 1985-86 when 21 percent
invled plagiarismshe said. Plagiarism was the
singe largest category of academic dishonesty in
the 198687 USC schd year. Tommy Li-
Daily Trojan, U. of Southern
California *.*
II
Continued From Page 1
said. "I just thought it would be in my
best interest to be honest and admit to
it.
"If someone were to come up to me
with the same kind of situation as mine
today, the bottom line is I would tell
them not to (cheat)," he said. But if the
person did decide to cheat, Steve said, "I
would tell them to do whatever they had
to do, or say whatever they had to say, to
get out of it because the most important
thing is to stay in school."
The university's discipline process
begins with an instructor who believes a
student is guilty of academic dishones-
ty. According to the university Code on
Campus Affairs and Regulations Ap-
plying to All Students, the professor
notifies the student and allows him or
her reasonable time to respond to the
allegation. The instructor then decides
what action to take.
In Steve's case, the professor's recom-
mendation for dismissal was a rare one.
Rather than dealing with the complica-
tions of the disciplinary process (Steve's
hearing lasted about three months),
most professors opt to give the studenta
failing grade for the assignment or the
course, said John Scouffus, executive
director of the Student Senate Com-
mittee.
But behind every student that gets
caught for cheating, there are many
more who get away with it.
At least two university students
admit to having someone take an exam
for them without much of a flinch. One
student had a friend take an exam for
her so she could leave early for a semes-
ter break.
The other student, Joe, said he took a
couple of math exams for his roommate.
"It's easy to cheat here," Joe said.
"Probably because of the huge numbers
of students."
In Joe's case, he and his roommate
both took the exam. When it was over,
Joe handed the exam to his roommate
and left. The roommate threw his test
away, went up to the proctor collecting
the exams, showed his ID, handed in
Joe's exam and left. It was that simple.
But because a friend of Joe's was dis-
missed for taking an exam for someone
else, Joe says he will not take any more
tests unless they are his own.
In all of these instances, the decision
whether to cheat did not involve a ques-
tion of right or wrong, but whether the
student would get caught. At least a
handful of administrators and profes-
sors believe this attitude is a reflection
of the nation's values today.
"We are finding people lying and
cheating all up and down our society,"
said economics Professor Marianne
Ferber. "I mean we are seeing people on
national television saying that they lied
and people think they are national
heroes."
"It's a question of ethics," Scouffus
said. "I'm sure there's a lot of pressure
on students to succeed especially in an
atmosphere like ours where we are
dealing with students who have very
strong professional direction."
Engineering senior Ted said he would
never cheat in a class in his major. For a
class outside of the core curriculum, he
may make a distinction.
Scouffus said, "This idea undermines than your major. You can't be intellec-
the whole purpose of a college educa- tually barren. If that's what you want, 4
tion. You must have an interest in more you should go to vocational school."
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