Students shouldn’t be responsible to tattle on cheaters for Code
By Jenny Specht
Skiff Staff

I did it, I’m guilty.

I cheated on a test.

I’m not sure what the statute of limitations on cheating is, but punish me now for my transgression. It was in seventh grade music class, and this albatross has been hanging around my neck for eight years now, ruining my testing karma and popping up as a pang of guilt in my head at the oddest of times.

I was never caught. The students at my table knew, I’m sure, but kept their mouths shut. Ah, the secrets you’ll keep at age 13.

Of course cheating is wrong, at any age, and in any variety. Not only on schoolwork, but in other areas: relationships, income taxes, golf games. The issue seems so cut and dry that it seems trite to discuss further. But it still happens, and in all its forms.

Who reading this has seen someone cheat? Tilted their Scantron to the side for a friend? Has plagiarized part of a paper? It’s 3 a.m., and after five cups of coffee, it’s much easier to copy someone else’s physics homework than to keep your drooping eyelids propped open.

It’s the last resort of a desperate student, or the first for a lazy one. It’s the best solution to the panicked seventh grader who was tone deaf and couldn’t distinguish between the oboe and the clarinet in a listening test.
But, the issue in question is what should be done about academic cheating?

TCU’s official policy is that any form of academic misconduct be handled by the professor or the dean of the college. What has been suggested by some faculty and students is the institution of an “Honor Code,” similar to the one at our rival to the east, Southern Methodist University, and many other institutions.

The Honor Code is a commitment to uphold academic standards, both personally and in others. If you see someone cheat, you should turn them in, to either your professor or the student-led Honor Council that tries cases of academic misconduct.

It’s a good idea in theory, but how would it work in practice? Who would be a tattletale? Should students become “narcs”?

If you slave away on an assignment and receive the same grade as the kid next to you who ordered their paper off the Internet, it’s not fair. But how honorable will you feel if you are the one to get someone in trouble who cheats?

It all whittles down to one word: honor. Your “personal integrity” (I stole the phrase from Dictionary.com).

Those who cheat should feel horrible no matter if they are punished or not — I know I still do. If they don’t, there’s nothing anyone can do to make them feel the wrong.

Yet, should students be burdened with the responsibility of upholding standards in others? I’m not sure. I would feel guilty either way: if I saw someone and didn’t say anything, or if I did.

I wonder who exactly an Honor Code hurts, and who it helps. Is the student in the desk next to a cheater as liable as they are, or merely an innocent bystander?

It turns out the issue of the Honor Code is fuzzier than cheating. Is it a good idea? Maybe. But it’s a better idea than just to be honorable.

Jenny Specht is a junior English and political science major from Fort Worth. She can be contacted at (j.l.specht@student.tcu.edu).

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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002