v c t c t i f a h
the fall semester of my freshman I cheated on a test in an introduc political science class. It was here U, in one of Budig Hall's cavernous fire halls, where I casually glanced few of the answers given by a girl led in front of me. But there was littleon for me to do so: I was prepared the test; I enjoyed the class; and I had clear evidence that the girl was well-reed in constitutional law. But I did it way.
anyway.
Was it the simple opportunity that drove me to cheat? Fear of failure or pressure from my parents? Whatever the reason, I'm certainly not the first college student who has cheated. A nationwide study of academic misconduct published this year by Don McCabe of Rutgers University found that nearly 70 percent of the more than 50,000 college students surveyed had cheated in one form or another during the previous year. Additionally, close to one-quarter of these students admitted to cheating on a test and half of them admitted to cheating heavily on one or more written assignments.
Similar numbers are to be found in an unpublished survey of 1,250 randomly-selected KU students. This study, conducted in the late 1990s, found that 23 percent of students here had given answers to another student during an exam, 22 percent had copied answers from another student's exam and 22 percent had knowingly committed plagiarism. More importantly, the study found half of all students surveyed agreed with the statement, "It is relatively easy to get away with academic dishonesty at KU."
Got to admit, it's not getting better
Cheating in college is nothing new, but it is becoming more prevalent: McCabe's study reveals that between 1963 and 1993 the number of students who admitted to unauthorized collaboration on coursework increased from 11 percent to 49 percent. And today, cheating is evolving as much as it is increasing. Students still copy each other's homework and bring notes to exams, but new technologies have allowed them to cheat in more elaborate and less detectable ways. The internet, which can also be a valuable academic tool, has become a readily accessible conduit for cut-and-paste plagiarism and unauthorized student collaboration. Next messaging on cell phones allows students to talk with others discreetly while taking a test and camera phones can be used to take pictures of tests for the future benefit of others. Graphing calculators can be programmed to retain formulas for math exams (if you're interested in doing this, an Oct. 4 column from the Kansan opinion page provides complete and succinct explanation of how to do so).
Out of these, the Internet has quickly
established itself as the most problematic. McCabe's same study found that while only 10 percent of students in 1999 had plagiarized information found on the Internet, by 2005 that number had risen to nearly 40 percent. Moreover, more than three-quarters of the students surveyed said cut-and-paste plagiarism was "not a serious issue."
Some of these instances of Web-based plagiarism are likely attributed to an inadequate student understanding of how to use and cite online sources, says Michele Eodice, director of the KU Writing Center. As members of what she calls the "Napster Generation," students might view text and files found online as community property, causing them to be unaware that the rules that govern citation of print materials also apply to those found online.
"I don't think we have an epidemic," she says, "but what we do have are students who need instruction."
Higher expectations, more cheating
While a legitimate misunderstanding of plagiarism or academic misconduct may account for some instances of cheating, these are often a minority. So why else do students cheat? The reasons are as varied as they are many, ranging from simple desperation to complex economic trends that are far less tangible.
More often than not, students resort to cheating when they're unprepared for the assignment, paper or exam. This may be due to laziness or procrastination, a lack of time or difficulty understanding the material. Among students, freshmen may be the most susceptible to fall behind in their workload and resort to cheating: many unprepared for harder classes and a radically different environment than their high schools. Additionally, if students received inadequate high school preparation in a given area, they may go about the subject's class work in "completion mode," says Ingrid Peterson, director of the KU Algebra Program. These students consider class assignments as individual obstacles to be overcome, rather than as building blocks to enhance their knowledge of the subject. They are more likely to cheat, she says, because when assignments are reduced to obstacles, students don't feel it's necessary to learn the information - only the final grade counts.
"Grades are held so highly," says Gina Gay, Leawood sophomore. "They determine what schools you can get in to."
But, like it or not, grades do count And they count for a lot
It's true: Most of the University's professional Schools require a minimum 2.5 GPA in required classes for admission. More often than not, however, one's grades must be much higher. Competitiveness and a finite number of spaces
force these schools to generally accept only those students whose GPAs far surpass the minimum requirement. In Spring 2004, for example, the newly admitted class to the School of Business had an average GPA of 3.42, nearly a full point higher than the minimum requirement. While students with GPAs that barely qualify still have a chance to get into these professional schools, they are severely disadvantaged in the application process.
Grades become even more important, and admissions all the more cutthroat, when students apply to graduate schools. In 2004 to 2005 the KU School of Law received 1,245 applications, but accepted only 317 students. Those who were admitted possessed a median GPA of 3.55, nearly half a point higher than that of the average KU undergraduate.
Some of the students who apply to graduate programs may do so because of a recent economic trend known as credentialism, defined by dictionary.com as "an overemphasis on diplomas or degrees in giving jobs or conferring social status." These students may think that they won't be able to succeed professionally without an advanced degree, says David Callahan, author of The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead.
"Students are anxious in making it today," he says, "the stakes are much higher. People want to protect themselves, so they rack up the highest credentials they can — there's a credential arms race."
Credentials have also led college degrees to be viewed more superficially. No longer do they solely represent a well-rounded educational abstraction, rather, they have become a slip of paper that qualifies one for a job. And because the college degree has been degraded, some students now feel that obtaining one — even if it means cheating to do so — is all that matters.
The primary victims of this trend may be the University's general education courses. Because undergraduate degrees only require around 30 credit hours in a given field, the majority of courses students take lie not within their majors, but in a diverse range of fields. The ostensible purpose of such a system is to combat the idea of college as job training by requiring classes needed for a well-rounded education, a principle the administration vehemently defends.
"The value of those classes is that you're producing whole people," says provost David Shulenburger. "We're not a trade school. General education prepares one for the lifelong role as a citizen."
a result, students are more likely to cheat in these courses than those within their majors because they, "just want to get them out of the way," says Erin Shipps, a 2005 KU graduate.
But when non-majors with little interest in the subject matter labor through a Biology 100 or introductory sociology class, it may be difficult for them to recognize the course's purported abstract worth. As
In addition to their marginalized reputation among students, general education classes also often suffer from a more pronounced catalyst for cheating: large classrooms. Because so many students are required to take them, these classes are often consigned to the University's largest lecture halls, rooms in Budig, Wescoe and elsewhere that rival movie theatres in size. Relative anonymity, close proximity to others and a violently skewed student/professor ratio are all factors that have made these classrooms the easiest places to cheat on campus.
"In big lecture halls, teachers don't know what's going on," says Jen Banks, Chicago sophomore. "You can get away with stuff; you have plenty of opportunities."
Administrators fight back
While cheating is prevalent at KU, the powers-that-be aren't turning a blind eye. As outlined in the University Senate's rules and regulations handbook, students who are caught cheating face a number of penalties, ranging from a simple reprimand to expulsion from KU. In each case, the student's academic history is taken into account. Students who have been caught cheating more than once are more likely to receive harsher penalties than first-time offenders.
This system, however, isn't perfect.The University lacks a central clearinghouse for matters of academic misconduct, and violations are instead handled within the school or department in which they occurred. These violations are then filed only within that school or department Conceivably, a student could be caught cheating multiple times but would only face harsh penalties if caught cheating repeatedly in one class, department or school.
Compounding the problem is a general reluctance among faculty members to report students who have cheated in their classes. Don McCabe's 2005 report found that 44 percent of faculty surveyed were aware that students had cheated in their classes but had not reported it to the proper authority because they preferred to deal with the matter privately or not at all. As it concerns plagiarism, this may be because faculty charges are not resolved consistently, making some faculty members think that plagiarism penalties are not worth pursuing, says Eodice. When faculty members employ turnitin.com, however, their cases are strengthened because it makes the evidence of plagiarism so hard to deny.
"The report is much more convincing
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11.10.05 Jayplay
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