By snoadmin
Students admit to being “academically dishonest,” according a survey conducted by CollegeHumor.com, a popular website that features humorous columns and multimedia features of general interest to college-age students.
CollegeHumor.com collected 29,176 replies for an online survey about cheating at school. The survey revealed that people cheat, with an alarming 60 percent of the participants admitting to cheating. Only 19.4 percent of them reported to have been caught.
A small, unscientific poll conducted at Cal State Long Beach suggested students cheat at a higher rate than the national average reported by CollegeHumor.com, with 75 percent of the students in the poll admitting to cheating at some point in their academic careers.
Melinda Patton, a sophomore undeclared student, said the statistic isn’t all that surprising. “The smarter you are the more you cheat,” Patton said, “and California has the best colleges.”
The results were closer between the two surveys when students were asked if they felt bad about cheating.
On CollegeHumor.com, of the people who cheated, approximately 73 percent said they felt no remorse. Poll results for the same category at CSULB were 80 percent.
Patton said she thinks students now are a “generation of lazy people” who have the technology to cheat. “We have the Internet; it even teaches you how to.”
Alex Sanjuan, a senior journalism major, said the rate of students who feel no remorse for cheating is high because cheating isn’t taken that seriously and it isn’t viewed as immoral.
However, college professors have reason not to be too alarmed. While 75 percent of students polled at CSULB said they cheated in high school, only 15 percent admitted to cheating in college.
Various reasons may explain why student cheating halts once in college. One reason, as said by Patton, is that in high school cheating is normal, whereas in college it reflects more of somebody’s character.
In an article on Inside Higher Ed’s website, insidehighered.com, Donald McCabe and Gary Pavela write that students “view high school as simply an annoying obstacle on the way to college, a place where they learn little of value, where teachers are unreasonable or unfair.””
There are so many cheaters in high school, McCabe and Pavela write, that others feel pressured to cheat in order to stay competitive.
This pattern is often discontinued in college, largely due to the stricter consequences of cheating at a university. On an academic dishonesty offense, a high school student may receive a referral. In college, a student faces more long-term consequences.
CSULB’s policy gives little room for academic dishonesty. In the case of a student caught cheating, as outlined in the journalism department’s’addendum to course syllabi, an instructor may remove a student from a class and fail him or her. A cheating student can also be expelled from the College of Liberal Arts or the university.
Pierre Batton, a junior theatre major, said he feels the consequences are effective in cheating prevention.
“You are an adult and”college is a privilege,” Batton said. “The powers that control it create rules to ensure their institutions remain revered by all.”
Jennifer Reed, a women’s studies assistant professor, said she does not tolerate cheating because it is bad for the student, and for the whole academic enterprise. Reed said that cheating “cheats” all the other students who work hard to develop their thoughts.
Still, some may say cheating is a right of passage.
“Cheating’s getting out of control,” Patton said. “Everyone’s just spoiled and lazy. [Our] parents actually worked for their grades.” Patton added that she would never date a cheater in college.
But with more than half of those who were surveyed admitting to cheating, if Patton plans to date at all, she may not have a choice.
