TOBAN TALKBACK

Questions from Student Advocacy - Academic Honesty Quiz

Andrew Sain, Staff

Melissa Hahn, University 1

Have you ever cheated?
“Back in high school, yeah, definitely.”
On the first day of classes you discover the assigned essay is on the same subject you wrote a paper on last term. You print off a new copy and hand it in with a new cover page. This is okay because it’s your own work, right?
“No, because you’re not really doing the work required for the class, you’re just handing in work that was required for another class.”
You aren’t getting the results you should during a lab experiment. You notice other students are finished and are leaving. You decide to change your results to the expected outcome. Is this okay because you know what the answers are supposed to be?
“No, because even if it is plagiarism, there’s also the fact that if you change your results, in the end it will mess up other things as well . . . in the end you’ll just end up doing really badly on your final.”
Do you think that cheating is a major problem in universities?
“I don’t really know, I don’t know anyone who cheats, but I do know it happens.”

Ben Gilles, University 1

Have you ever cheated?
“Probably . . . yes. I never cheated in High School.”
You aren’t getting the results you should during a lab experiment. You notice other students are finished and are leaving. You decide to change your results to the expected outcome. Is this okay because you know what the answers are supposed to be?
“I don’t really do experiments, being an arts student, but let’s say I know the answer’s supposed to be three but I keep getting two, so I change it to three? That would just make me sad, really. I’d be pissed off for the entire week . . . no, I wouldn’t do it.”
Do you think that cheating is a major problem in universities?
“I don’t really know, to be perfectly honest. It seems like the university is very strict about the rules . . . they have a whole set of guidelines and policies that they’ve adopted and that all students have to follow. I’ve never known anyone who has cheated in university, but I assume that they potentially could and no one would know about it.”

Parthipan Kamaleswaran, SCIENCE III

Have you ever cheated?
“Yeah.”
On the first day of classes you discover the assigned essay is on the same subject you wrote a paper on last term. You print off a new copy and hand it in with a new cover page. This is okay because it’s your own work right?
“I would probably rewrite it.”
You aren’t getting the results you should during a lab experiment. You notice other students are finished and are leaving. You decide to change your results to the expected outcome. Is this okay because you know what the answers are supposed to be?
“Yep. [I would] in my chem lab.”
Do you think that cheating is a major problem in universities?
“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I think they’re doing enough [to control it].”