Ethics come after grades
COMMENTARY
Christina Ruffini

Cheating is an epidemic that ails every college nationwide. One wonders if cheating is more common now because of the increasing academic competition among students, or because of ever-degrading morality that has become all too common in our country.

Morals often take a back seat to success. Students are taught at an early age that they must be the best at any cost. In grade school, a child might look at his neighbor’s paper to get a check plus instead of a check minus on a spelling quiz. When his parents and teachers praise the high marks on his report card, the deceitful ways in which he achieved them seem to be affirmed. In high school the same child might copy his friend’s worksheets when his were incomplete or download a paper from the Internet because he didn’t have time to finish his, all the while telling himself that a dishonest “A” is better than an honest “F.”

For many students, school is not at all about learning; it is about grades. Grades will get them into an Ivy League graduate school or allow them an internship for a six-figure job. Nowhere on a high school or college transcript does a student receive marks for honesty. The cheating students are rewarded, while the honest students with lesser grades are overlooked.

So as students we must make a choice. There are two paths we can choose. One offers everything we could ever want. It has the least amount of work and the highest marks. It will give us glory we did not earn and success we do not deserve. It is the easy way out, the shortcut, the popular route. Company executives cheat on their taxes, domestic idols practice insider trading and they are all making millions of dollars doing it. Everything is moral as long as we profit from it. If we don’t get caught, we have done nothing wrong.

The other path is less crowded. It is harder to travel and there are times it may seem like we are the only ones on it. On this path we must earn everything ourselves. This means working harder, longer and probably getting less in return. It means taking the honest “C,” letting your stock depreciate and paying the government every cent it is owed. This path is unpopular and, at places, desolate, but however difficult it may be, choosing integrity also means that every award we get, every dollar we spend, every congratulations that is said to us or banquet given in our name, we earned. We worked for it, and we deserve it. It cannot be taken away. The honor we achieve by ethical learning is more difficult, but it validates who we are, and helps dictate who we will become.

Christina Ruffini is a freshman business major from Colorado Springs, Colo.