Studies show sharp rise in cheating at universities
By Ali Alemozafar
The Stanford Daily

STANFORD, Calif. (U-WIRE) — Arguably, it is human nature: temptation surpasses proper academic conduct and the desire to excel leads some to take extreme measures.

In the wake of recent studies showing that cheating is on the rise at institutions across the country, coupled with a rise in alleged honor code violations at Stanford University, many feel that it is time to reassess the university’s honor code and its role in the academic culture.

Duke University’s Center for Academic Integrity — an institute that helps create honor codes for its 250 member universities, including Stanford — has conducted several studies showing that cheating is on the rise at Duke and elsewhere.

A 2001-02 CAI survey of campuses nationwide found that 27 percent of students attested to falsifying lab data, 41 percent admitted to plagiarism on written assignments, 30 percent said they cheated during tests and 60 percent acknowledged unauthorized collaborations. Comparison to data from the 1999-2000 academic year shows the number of college students who said they had cut and pasted from the Internet without attributing their source rose from 10 percent to 41 percent.

Figures reported by Stanford’s Office of Judicial Affairs reflect the national trend. From 1998 to 2001 there has been a 126 percent increase in alleged violations of the honor code. In particular, the number of cases heard by the Judicial Panel involving “unpermitted aid” has increased from five to 45 and those involving “unpermitted collaborations” have risen from one to eight.

According to George Wilson, the Judicial Affairs program coordinator, in the previous three academic years there has been an increase in the number of charged cases. He further added that there have been three expulsions in the past year and only one expulsion in the three years before that.

Stanford’s code, which is different from those used by schools like the University of Virginia, Cornell and Rice, is enforced by a judicial panel consisting of faculty, staff and students. At the University of Virginia, the system is entirely student-run.

At Cornell, exams are proctored by the instructor or a teaching assistant, whereas at Stanford, the honor code specifically includes a “no-proctoring” clause. This means that the professor or teaching assistant must leave the room before the exam can begin.

The honor code at Rice permits professors to give take-home exams.

Although proctors can deter cheating, they may be unable to catch offenders in action. “Any student who’s cheating will stop cheating when the TA walks in,” said Stanford senior Alexis Halaby.

A solution to an alleged increase in cheating may involve a more rigorous use of the honor code, which is meant to be a culturally enforced system, she said.

If accused of cheating, students face the judicial panel and if found guilty may receive one quarter suspension and community service.

Meanwhile, in light of the increase in the reported incidents of cheating, a number of universities have implemented measures to catch offenders like the Measure of Software Similarity program to automatically search lines of code for plagiarism and Internet search engines.

“You are in college of your own free will, so why would you not want to just do the work and get good grades on your own merit?” said Pedram Keyani, a Stanford computer science graduate student. “If you get a good job or into a good graduate school based on ill-deserved grades, everything from that point on is tainted, even if you never cheat again.”