Bloomberg: Dartmouth College accused 64 students of cheating in a sports ethics class last semester, the latest in a string of cases of academic dishonesty involving athletes at elite U.S. colleges.
Students used a hand-held device known as a clicker to answer questions for classmates who were absent, according to Randall Balmer, who teaches the class, “Sports, Ethics and Religion.”
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While I do agree with the punishment and suspension of probation for students that cheat on exams, I disagree the comment made by Aine Donovan, the director Dartmouth’s Ethics institute. They said that they believe the string of cheating and ethics violations are caused by this generations belief that they are the best, and because they have no notion of integrity, responsibility and self-sacrifice. I think that the increase in cheating has its roots in several factors. 1) This is largely a cause among athletes. We, much more than a generation ago, turn college athletes into celebrities for entertainment value, while they are really no more than normal college students who are participating in an extra curricular activity. The draw of fame is strong. 2) Among athletes, this is reinforced in some cases by the fact that they are recruited to come to these school for the purpose of playing their extra curricular activity, and are encouraged to put other things to the side. 3) On a general note, it seems like there is an increasing number of “required core classes” in college that have little to no academic content in, and are easy to cheat in. I am not saying that because a class is easy to cheat in is an excuse for cheating, but I do think it is up to the university to provide academically rigorous courses where one has to put in effort is fail the course.
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