Persuasive Speech

Without a doubt it is something that we have all thought about doing. Many of us have done it in one way or another whether we are willing to admit it or not. It has been and will continue to be an issue for school communities through out the nation. What I am referring to is academic dishonesty. Academic integrity was stressed in my high school and even more here at DePaul. Recently my interest has sparked in this subject because one of my roommates is on the academic integrity board here at DePaul. I did not realize how much of an issue this was until I saw him going through the different cases that were going to be reviewed by the board. With that in mind I am going to let you know how prevalent academic dishonesty is, what DePaul considers to be violations of code and possible punishments for violations, and alternatives to violating academic integrity.

Academic dishonesty is not something that started with the increasing use of the internet. Cheating can be traced back many years and takes place all over the world. One incident in China reported that civil service exams were given in cubicles and the participants were searched in order to prevent cheating. In this case the death penalty was going to be enacted to violators. Following the test it was still reported that some of the participants found a way to cheat and risked the consequences.

In America research has been done to see if the frequency of academic dishonesty has been increasing, but there has been little evidence to prove this. Despite this information it is believed that in higher education institutions academic dishonesty has become more of a problem. This is due to the belief that college students are not as concerned with learning the subject as they are with the grade they will receive in the course. The Carnegie Council of Policy Studies in Higher Education identified an ethical decline in the attitude of college students, and that they believe it is necessary for them to cheat in order to make the grades that are required. Multiple surveys have been given testing how much cheating actually occurs in college. The numbers vary depending on how many students and universities are studied but between different surveys somewhere between 50 and 70 percent of students admitted to some form of academic dishonesty.

I than took a look at where academic dishonesty occurs the most in universities. Donald McCabe of Rutgers University Business School did a study on the different schools in universities and where students were considered to be the worst with cheating. The highest ranking belonged to journalism majors where 27 percent of students admitted to stealing answers directly on tests. Business majors were not far behind where 26 percent of students admitted to cheating on tests. The lowest ranking school belonged to the sciences where 19 percent of the students reported cheating during exams. These numbers seem low compared to the 50 to 70 percent of students who committed some form of academic dishonesty, but these figures are just from tests which means that most of the academic integrity violations occur with plagiarism and other violations.

These numbers may seem high, but when taken in to perspective they become more believable. The DePaul Code of Student Responsibility outlines the different forms of academic dishonesty and what constitutes a violation. The different offenses include cheating, plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, misuse of academic resources, alteration of records, academic misconduct, and complicity. Some of these categories even have sub-categories with different offenses that are related. With all of these standards and codes to meet, the high percentage of students that have admitted to committing some form of academic dishonesty becomes more believable.

The question then becomes why the number of violations in academic integrity is so high. There are a few main reasons which include situations where students feel cheating is needed, personal qualities that make some students more inclined to cheating, and an effort to make better grades. These reasons all seem like viable excuses to violate academic integrity. I know that all of us have felt the pressure and the temptation to do whatever it takes to meet a grade even if it means cheating, plagiarizing or any other violation, but it is important that this temptation does not get the best of us because the consequences for getting caught can be much worse than the benefit of one grade.

As I mentioned earlier one of my roommates is on the board of academic integrity and he told me how the process DePaul takes for violations works. Violators will present their case to the board similar to that of someone appearing in court. After reviewing the case the board members decide on the action that should be taken based on the case and amount of violations that the offender has. Based on that information the board takes action on a punishment. He told me that expulsion is usually never ruled out unless it is a first time offender. Depending on the circumstances usually a minimum one quarter suspension is forced upon the student if they are found guilty. If this happens the violation goes on the student’s permanent academic record. This is a huge deal because any employer has access to these records and will most likely check it when you are applying for a job. Not to mention that if you are suspended from DePaul any credits that you earn during your suspension will not transfer. So for however long your punishment is your graduation date is now delayed because of it.

Instead of incurring these consequences students should take other action if they feel the need to cheat in some way. If a teacher is known to give close to impossible tests and everyone knows it, students need to bring the issue to the university. If everyone cheats their way through the class it does no good and the next class is going to need to do the same thing. By bringing the issue to someone it is possible that something can be changed with the way the professor teaches. Students pay to go to college to get an education not to be oppressed by the faculty.

The temptation to break academic integrity is without a doubt stronger than ever now with information being easily accessible. The internet provides a vast amount of information, and the ability to purchase papers which people can use as their own. Class sizes are only getting bigger in college and I know that the temptation to cheat is even harder to resist because of it. However I urge you not to fall in to this trap. Clearly through the statistics that I presented you can see that many people give in to this temptation. It is imperative that we don’t because the consequences are too great. No one wants to be denied opportunities because they were trying to make a grade that would normally not even matter in the future. By falling victim to academic dishonesty a mark against you on your academic record will be there forever and have a much greater impact than a bad grade ever would. So next time you are strapped for time when you need to study for a test or write a paper, get what you can done yourself and take whatever grade you get rather than potentially face the consequences that come with cheating.