After a fruitless study session that ended at midnight, with periodic naps included, one begins to feel unprepared for the exam the next day.
Cheating begins to look tempting at this point.
For some students, possible punishments to cheating are not detrimental to their behavior, which has led faculty and administrators wanting to change the policy on such behavior.
“The cheating policy is outdated in some criteria and the faculty want certain parts of it to be highlighted,” Harold Tyler, director of student services, said. “There has been some trouble because of an increase in plagiarism and cheating, which is partly due to students having technological items they are not allowed to have during an exam.”
What is being done is separating the policy on cheating from the process in which cheating is dealt with and creating a list of what constitutes cheating and examples of it.
“In order to handle cheating, a report on the suspected behavior must be documented and the student is told what the accusation is. Unless the student admits to the charge, they can choose to have a hearing to tell their side if they believe there is a mistake. It’s due process, and they are allowed to have that,” Tyler said.
Some students believe others get away with cheating because new techniques are available, making cheating more common.
“I think students cheat,” Tom said. “I don’t want to say it’s easy, but (students) are creative. The creative mind always wins.”
While some believe students are getting away with cheating, others believe the rules are strict and do not need to be enforced more.
“I don’t want the rules to be stronger,” Duncan said. “I think if you get caught cheating, you will get in trouble. I mean, if you get caught doing things like that at work, you get fired. It shouldn’t be different here.”
Because college is viewed by some students as their gateway to what’s to come in one’s life, it is believed that it should be treated as an experience which requires effort to succeed.
“This is preparation for the future and the real world,” Duncan said. “If you can’t do it here, you can’t do it anywhere.”
Even with technology and other factors creating more cheating, students do not believe cheating has necessarily become easy, and that students carry out such behavior because it becomes almost a necessity.
“Some students work full time and go to school full time. If you go to school and have a job, you might not have time to study enough for the test and the semester goes by quick. Not everyone learns at the same pace,” Art said. “Cheating is not easy; it’s never easy, but I have never seen anyone get caught.”
He also noted that cheating may also be because the school is not able to help as many students that are coming in, especially due to budget cuts.
“I don’t think we have enough resources,” Art said. “I think the school needs to do more to help students learn. I don’t think students cheat because they’re lazy, there’s just not enough being done to help out.”
While cheating may have increased, the numbers are not substantially high yet.
“In comparison the number of students we have, not many students cheat. In comparison to the numbers we had last year, the number has jumped,” Tyler said. “I’m getting a lot more reports about people cheating.”
