A Question Of Honor By William Chace

Ethics are the principals that build an individual’s character and integrity. It is the code of conduct that a person lives by; it is the way that a person conducts themselves when no one is around. Stealing, lying, and cheating are wrong, yet every day in the workplace these issues occur. Growing competition lends to the need for people to do what they can to get ahead and stay ahead. Ethics are pushed to the side as people try to gain power or to stay out of trouble, all at the risk of tarnishing their character. This same mindset has spilled over into Academia. A student’s desire to successfully earn a degree by any means necessary has caused educational institutions to address these ethical issues by setting policies in place to combat academic dishonesty.

A study done in Source E shows that there are only eight percent of students that would turn in a fellow student for cheating. If that sort of dishonesty becomes rampant in a school, the honor codes can no longer be upheld properly. The honesty of students is key to the success of honor codes. If a student is dishonest about the misbehavior of another student, then the honor code goes to waste, because now the cheating has not been taken care of by the justice of the honor system. There is no foreseeable remedy for such behavior, and there will always be a “bad apple to ruin the bunch.”

The conflict of whether or not honor codes should be established has been brought up again due to an increase in cheating and collaborating on tests and school work. Recently, a surplus of students have been caught cheating in unexpected places, like Harvard and the University of Virginia. Those colleges are considering using honor codes to counteract the surge of cheating that has arisen. Although there is currently a cheating problem that needs to be dealt with, incorporating honor codes into high schools and colleges is not the most effective way to solve the cheating problem, and will not solve the cheating problem indefinitely. It is very difficult to change a person’s personality and their morals, no matter what paper they sign, but there are ways to make people’s convictions stronger. One of which is student interaction. Like many people, students have a “follow the herd” nature and want to fit in with the crowd. If many students discourage cheating, the “crowd” may choose to not cheat in fear of being shunned. Student interaction is much more effective than honor codes, and is a much less drastic change.

If a college campus harbors an environent where cheating is seen as acceptable and an activity many people participate in, even students with correct morals and no desire to cheat themselves are less likely to report fellow students for unsavory behavior. This can also go a step further and that same student who failed to confront a peer for cheating, may give in to the school’s atmosphere and start cheating themselves. This makes them all the less likely to report other students for fear of appearing hypocritical and/or being reported themselves. A study on honor code effectiveness was completed by Sally Sledge and Pam Pringle at a small public university (Source E). Their results showed that only 8% of students would report a fellow student for cheating. Even more surprisingly, 40% of students anonymously stated that they had “violated the honor code and not been caught”. This points to a very cheater-friendly attitude at this particular school and shows that the honor system is not very effective in this

Chace, W. M. (2012). A Question of Honor: Cheating on campus undermines the reputation of our universities and the value of their degrees. Now is the time for students themselves to stop it. (Cover story). American Scholar, 81(2), 20-32.

In “A Question of Honor” William m Chace writes about his concerns within the realm of universities around the country. Specifically, Chase is concerned with the decreased funding, declined learning and honor, and most importantly academic dishonestly. Chance begins with identifying some of the problems resulting in the diminishing state of the nation’s universities. In “A Question of Honor” Chace deliveries his viewpoint on how addressing the problem of academic dishonesty will propel the schools over these obstacles. Rising tuition leaves thousands of middle class and poorer students from applying to top schools.

The problem of what the author is identifying is that school and students are breaking the honor code. Breaking the honor code means the school and students are cheating on each other. Not only it is considered cheating, it is also dishonesty and losing trust. I believe we as students should follow the honor code to earn honesty and trustworthy. If I were to break the honor code, the school and students would believe that I cheat on them. Not only that, I would be the most dishonest person in the entire campus. If the school does not have the honor code, students would break the rules. It is almost like if police officers did not exist, everyone would break the law. Students would succeed and have a better future if they follow the honor

Some critics argue that university students in America study much less than they used to. In “An F in Student Effort,” Phillip Babcock, an assistant professor of economics at University of California, Santa Barbara and Mindy Mark, an economics at the University of California, Riverside, recently issue a report on the declines in studying time among college student. In particular, in the 1960s full-time college students studied averagely 24 hours per week. Today the average study hours per week is 14 hours. The 10-hour decline is visible for students from all demographic groups and of all cognitive abilities, in every major and at every type of college (Barbara and Mark 1). For this reason, opponents argue that university education is being

In the body of the article, the author depicts his fears that if being honest is no longer valued, the future society will collapse and give way to chaos and anarchy. Then he states that this tendency is observed even in those places where truth must be the priority, for example, educational institutions. Here he provides many examples of scandals that occurred in different schools regarding the students who were cheating and teachers who abetted them in doing it. Understandably, most students want to cheat, especially those who despise studying and learning. However, the motivation of teachers can be different and unusual. For example, some teachers do not punish students for teaching because they think that by helping each

The writer proposes adopting the Groveton's honor code which calls for students not to cheat and report to a faculty member if they suspect anyone cheating to reduce the dramatic rise in cheating among college and university students. For this he gives various reasons. When the honor code was adopted the number of students caught cheating reduced from 30 to 14 in 5 years. The author also cites a survey where it was found majority of students would be less likely to cheat if an honor code was present. The reasons might sound true but they are specious at best.

An Overview of American Higher Education (Baum, 2013) focuses on the evolving definition of a “college” over the past fifty years. Over this time period, colleges have made changes from focusing on academia discipline to job preparation (Baum, 2013). The expected length of time to obtain a college degree as change as well. The term college encompasses four-year tracks, community colleges, certificate programs and half-time attendance, where a degree can be achieved at your own pace. In the 1960s America’s competitive edge was declining on a national scale and this encouraged a push for a more educated America. Furthermore, the expanding variety of post-secondary education opportunities grew from the idea that access to higher education should be more available, finically and geographically, to the population (Baum, 2013).

Many students leave for college and are excited to begin a new journey or chapter in their life. Many had a long road to make it through high school while some found it easy. This paper will be discussing the Ethical journey of views of college students. What make some cheat while other are honest and how is cheating or academic dishonesty viewed by the American people. What are ethics and how they do apply to the college student, and how does the college student s apply it to the world.

Academic dishonesty is a threat to every student and every institution of higher education. The very act runs contrary to the fundamental values of higher education (Bowers, 1964). Dishonesty compromises the integrity of the individual student as well as the reputation of the institution (Engler, Landau, & Epstein, 2008; Gallant, 2008).

Why do students continue to enter a college education system that is no longer focusing on them? The education system was built to serve the interest of the public, to provide opportunities for people to further their education and move up or maintain their social classes, and to teach people to think for themselves. All of the authors Menand, Roth, and Couturier all agree that education is threatened by the fact that colleges are focusing more on their private affairs instead of the students. They believe college should be focused on the student and their ability to think on their own and “enhance their capabilities” (Roth 2). Rose-Hulman does this well by challenging their students with a hard curriculum, but at the same time they are willing to give them plenty of opportunities to find success with smaller class sizes and a student friendly environment.

Academic dishonesty is another facet of unethical behaviour. It is an action or attempt that results in creating an unfair academic advantage for oneself or a disadvantage for any other member of academic community. A child uses his or her experiences in society to shape personal ethics. Family has a strong influence on one's values and behaviour,parents establish rules from the start and it becomes the basis for our ethics and morals. A personal ethical commitment is part of what makes students a success. A lack of ethical commitment will always result in acdemic failure. I personally believe that students who are academically dishonest cheat themselves out of an education and harm their fellow students by screwing the grading curve for the class as a whole. Therefore academic ethics are vital and students should commit themselves to maintaining highest personal ethical standards.