Human Nature | 020 Community and character | 02180 Chilly

02180 Chilly

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Stanford ethics polls
The campuses with the lowest incidence of cheating are those with formal Honor Codes. Those campuses prohibit the use of proctors during tests, even in huge lecture halls. They depend instead on students holding each other responsible. What example are we setting for students if we do not report cheating?

Again, we may ask, what exactly is the problem? And is it getting worse?

What can we do to prevent cheating?



44% ignore cheating
Are we conveying to students that there is more to be a good professional than being a state-of-the-art technical expert? Are we communicating to our students what it means to be ethically responsible?

Notice, now, that before we need information, we need a community that provides moral support. The UW students did not know the rules (otherwise they would have known who to go to). But they did not feel supported. They had no advocate. And they had were up against powerful forces. Their mentor, the dept. head, the faculty, all were quietly lining up against them. And they knew it.

We will actively deter cheating only when whistleblowers are certain that they will be protected. The atmosphere must be warm. What makes an atmosphere warm on a given subject can be as simple a matter as regularly discussing it. Regularly discussing it, in many forums, by many people. Not only with the new students for a couple of hours on Orientation Day, although that is a good start, but repeatedly with the veteran students, and the faculty as well. And the upper administrators as well. Only in that kind of climate will those who observe suspected misconduct feel safe enough to bring it forward.


Author: Gary Comstock
Maintained By: Gary Comstock
Last Updated: 2007-06-17