Oregon daily emerald., December 01, 2003, Page 3, Image 3

CHEATING
continued from page 1
both as a teacher and as a parent. She
specifically recalled one instance where
she suspected her daughter of cheating
on a math test.
"When I asked her about it, her an
swer was pretty cavalier 'Mom, it's just a
math test,'" Cooper said.
TEP Faculty Consultant Laurie Jones
Neighbors also deals extensively with
the issues surrounding academic dis
honesty. She said students are motivat
ed to cheat during extreme conditions,
such as when their computer crashes
the night before a paper is due and the
student has to make a choice between
not turning in the assignment and turn
ing in something they didn't write
"It's not like students are 'Ha ha ha,
I'm cheating,"' Neighbors said. "Stu
dents 1 find who do intentional cheat
ing are in desperate circumstances."
But perhaps the biggest factor push
ing students to cheat is the pressure
cooker known as college life.
"Between trying to fit in all the cred
its, and trying to make sure you get a
good internship or job, and dealing
with your parents — there's a million
stresses," sophomore Allie Major said.
According to the University Counsel
ing and Testing Center's 2002-03 re
port, stress is a big part of students' lives.
In fact, 42.4 percent of the students
who turned to the counseling center for
aid did so in part because they "don't
handle anxiety well."
Counseling Center Senior Staff Psy
chologist Ron Miyaguchi said the temp
tation to cheat doesn't really come up
in his sessions with students, but many
students he sees have scrambled priori
ties, which could result in them choos
ing to cheat.
"Students are typically in the mind
set of short-term goals — for example,
my goal is to get an 'A' in this class," he
said.
Academic Learning Services Instruc
tor Amy Nuetzman also said students
focus too much on the short term and
fail to recognize how demanding col
lege classes are. They're fine for the first
few weeks of the term, but when home
work deadlines, paper deadlines and
test deadlines start piling up, many stu
dents think the only way to dig them
selves out is by cutting comers, Nuetz
man said.
"A lot of students have told me that
they are short on time actually writing
the paper and they feel like they just
have to whip it out ” Nuetzman said.
But the final part of the equation
explaining why students cheat is the
fact that many students don't realize
they're cheating.
"A lot of students don't understand
the standards the University holds
them to," said I Iilary Berkman, director
of the Office of Student Advocacy.
She added that some instances of
cheating are clearly intentional, such
_CHEATING STATISTICS_
• On most campuses, more than 75 percent of students admit to
cheating.
• In a 1999 survey of 2,100 students on 21 campuses across the
country, about one-third of the participating students admitted to
serious test cheating and half admitted to one or more instances of
serious cheating on written assignments.
• Internet plagiarism is a growing concern on college campuses as
students struggle to understand what constitutes acceptable use of the
Internet In the absence of clear direction from faculty, many students
have concluded that “cut and paste" plagiarism - using a sentence or
two from different sources on the Internet and weaving this information
together into a paper without appropriate citation - is not a serious issue.
While 10 percent of students admitted to engagng in such behavior in
1999, this rose to 41 percent in a 2001 survey with the majority of
students - 68 percent - saying this was not a serious issue.
• Faculty are reluctant to take action against suspected cheaters.
In a 1999 survey of more than 1,000 faculty members on 21
campuses, one-third of those who were aware of students cheating
in their courses in the last two years did nothing to address it.
Students suggest that cheating is higher in courses in which it is
well-known that faculty members are likely to ignore cheating.
SOURCE: The Center for Academic Integrity’s Web site at
http://www.academicintegrity.org/cai_research.asp
as purchasing a paper off the Inter
net, but other academic transgres
sions, such as failing to cite a paper
properly, are often unintended.
"Academic dishonesty isn't black and
white," she said. "The cases we see can
be very complicated in that maybe the
student hasn't done everything cor
rectly, but that isn't necessarily an act
of dishonesty."
Contact the news editor
at jenniferbear@dailyemerald.com.
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ening tne excnange ot HIV related information
and forging a spirit of social tolerance.
This year’s theme:
“Stigma and Discrimination”
Consider how stigma and discrimination against HIV affects the following:
• getting tested for HIV
• gaining employment
• maintaining relationships
• admitting HIV positive status publicly
• obtaining health insurance
• entering a foreign country
• seeking treatment
• starting relationships
No policy or law alone can combat HIV/AIDS related discrimination. We must
confront biased social attitudes to reduce the discrimination and stigma of
people who are living with HIV.
What you can do:
• Learn more about HIV/AIDS at the Health Ed. Office in the Health Center.
• Learn more about World AIDS Day on http://avert.org/worldaids.htm.
• Get HIV tested at the Health Center (346-2770 for an appointment).
• Pick up a red ribbon at the Health Center. Wear it and talk about World AIDS Day
with others.
• Pick up free condoms & dental dams at the Health Center
• Become a peer educator! Call 346-4456 for more information
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
Health Center
http://healthcenter.uoregon.edu