Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz
Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas
Newsroom: (541)346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Wednesday
February 9,2000
Volume 101, Issue 93
Emerald
CHEATING
Giovanni Salemina Emerald
Have you cheated?
Oh, come on now. Admit
it; 91 percent of us already
have. We cheat.
According to a Rutgers University
study of 10 universities—including
ours—an average of 89 percent of stu
dents admit to cheating. And hey, we’re
not a mediocre university; we were
higher than the average at 91 percent!
Ouch.
Well, we must face the music. Bite
the bullet. Take a good look in the
mirror.
OK, enough of the cliches. But is
n’t that the point? We all need to
start doing our own work and think
ing for ourselves. It’s obvious that
there’s a severe lack of originality
and drive to produce good work.
But why?
While parents may cite moral
degradation and the laziness of
“Generations X, Y and Z,” the truth
is that all of society feeds into this
cheating consciousness. One of the
reasons cited for cheating in high
school was to get into college. And
now that we’re here, time pressures,
grade pressures and social pressures
are among the new reasons to cheat.
Most students probably don’t plan
on cheating for their major tests, pro
jects or papers, but stuff just comes
up, and pressures collide. Time is
the major culprit.
Moreover, the Internet makes
credit cards, pornography and risky
stock trading available to all — make
that in-your-face to all — and oppor
tunities to plagiarize are no different.
If you have the time to look up a fact
on the Web, you’re just one click
away from downloading a complete
paper. E-mail is an easy way to get a
sibling’s recycled paper, and almost
untrackable Web sites are easy to
hide from a busy professor. It’s like
the Internet is just daring us to cheat.
So it’s society’s fault. Right?
No. It’s ours, too. Homework,
tests, projects and papers are all
there to give students a way to prove
they’ve learned something. It’s
doubtful that teachers just love to
grade so much that they assign pa
pers for fun. More than just a sense
of accomplishment is lost when stu
dents cheat; the learning is lost a bit,
too. Cheating is the best example of
karma there is. In the real world,
someone is going to ask a cheater to
produce real evidence that he or she
has some skill. What are cheaters go
ing to do then?
Finding the test in a dumpster is
easier than studying for four hours.
But solutions to cheating do lie in
simple things, like using the powers
of the Internet for good instead of
evil. It’s a tool, just like any other.
The idea is to develop a way of
thinking about the Internet that
makes students realize the powerful
resource they have without making
the resource do all the work. But too
many students are doing just that.
And numbers don’t lie. Or do
they? Ninety-one percent? Can we
see a show of hands? It seems like an
awfully high number, and it hinges
significantly on the definition of
cheating. What is spelled out clearly
in the handbook as cheating may not
be the definition 91 percent of us
had in mind when we answered
whether we’d ever done it. You al
ways have to be on the lookout for
lies, damn lies, and statistics.
But before we blame the numbers
entirely, we still recognize cheating for
the major problem it is. Cheating hurts
everyone. For the person whose paper
has been copied, it hurts his or her
originality. For teachers, it skews their
sense of how they are getting through
to students. For the cheating student, it
only teaches laziness. And for the stu
dent who observes cheating or is asked
to help someone cheat, it creates a
morally and socially uncomfortable
situation: No one wants to be a snitch.
But maybe we should start. No
one wants a surgeon who cheated on
his or her exams.
But apparendy some of them have.
This editorial represents the opinion of the
Emerald editorial board. Responses may be
sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Letters to the editor
LGBTA is inclusive, diverse
As a graduate student in community planning,
hopefully Mark Stevens (ODE letters, Feb. 4) will
have the opportunity to take a basic sociology class,
which may clear up some misunderstanding that
has apparently taken place. Ideally this would help
him understand why organizations like the Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Alliance and the
Black Student Union (to name two of more than 30
groups) exist: These unions represent groups that
have been marginalized in our culture. These stu
dent associations have organized around their mar
ginalized status in society that has historically em
powered heterosexual white men at the expense of
others. Organizations like the BSU, ASUO
Women’s Center and LGBTA have formed in re-*
sponse to this social structure in which people of
color, women and LGBT individuals are systemati
cally excluded from power.
The exclusion Stevens perceives in the LGBTA is
an unfortunate mistake. These student unions exist
to support students whose cultural identity is mar
ginalized and to do educational outreach so that
more “inclusive” society is possible. Divisions in
society arise when ignorance and fear prevail. Orga
nizations like the LGBTA seek to bring about social
justice by dispelling stereotypes, thereby creating a
world where people are empowered regardless of
their race, gender or sexual orientation.
Had Stevens participated in “Gay Day,” (an
event, like all LGBTA events, to which allies are ex
plicitly invited), he would have found a diverse
group dedicated to constructing a more just society,
not through exclusion, but through education and
coalition building. We hope to see him, and all al
lies, at future events.
Molly McClure
LGBT issues coordinator, ASUO Women’s Center
«
Heterosexuals allies of LGBT community
In response to Mark Stevens’ letter (ODE, Feb. 4),
I would like to address two very common mistakes.
Stevens’ first mistake is that he never addresses the
power structure of society in regard to sexual orien
tation.
The term “community” can refer to society as a
whole, a group of people living in the same locality,
a social group or class, etc. I think that when we dis
cuss the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender com
munity we are referring to a social group that is sin
gled out and viewed as deviant. The term does not
always all include every living thing.
If individuals who share the same views as
Stevens are willing to remain blind to the societal
construct of oppression within sexual orientation,
they will never be able to understand the struggle of
the LGBT community. In addition, I think that it is
crucial to note that the non-LGBT individuals who
participate in the LGBT community do so as allies,
meaning they share the vision of community.
I think the way that Stevens frames his discussion
void of power relations and structure is dangerous
because it creates the notion that somehow hetero
sexuals and asexuals are being discriminated
against. It is silly to suggest that heterosexuals and
asexuals are “marginalized” because they are not in
cluded in the acronym. Allies are crucial to the lib
eration movement; maybe an A should be added to
represent them. Those who are not allies have no
place in the movement.
Heather Mitchell
environmental science
“He walked into
our practice and
just proved that
he knows how to
play—■-when to
set picks, when to
move the balk He
was very impres
sive considering
he hasn’t played
fora year.”
—NBA Dallas
Mavericks coach
and general
manager Don .
Nelson on the re
cent addition of
rebound-cham
pion and head
jine-maker Den
nis Rodman to
the Mavs lineup
this week.
ESPN.com,
Feb. 8.
“t wanted to give
up hope. But now
I can help other
people.”
— 14-year-old
Nick Breach, who
is dying of a brain
tumor, on his de
cision to donate
his organs after
his death.
CNN.com, Feb. 8.
“Derrick Thomas
leaves a tremen
dously positive
legacy that will
per manently en
rich everyone
whose life he
touched.”
— NFL commis
sioner Paul Tagli
abueon the Tues
day heart-attack
death of the 33
year-old Kansas
City linebacker.
Prior to his death,
Thomas was in
volved in a car ac
cident that left
him paralyzed.
YAHOO.com,
Feb. 8.
LETTERS POLICY
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