As the air becomes thick with the stench of finals, thousands of
students will cram, pull all-nighters and pull their hair out in
anticipation of their exams. Hundreds of others will prepare to
cheat. At a time when sleep becomes secondary, caffeine becomes an
addiction and winter break seems light years away, an increasing
number of students look less to their books and more to the option
of cheating to get by on their final exams and papers. There are
many reasons students cheat. Some feel the pressure from the
competitiveness of getting into graduate school. Others simply do
it because they can. Students that say they have cheated also
express their intenion to continue doing so when the opportunities
present themselves. But some cheating does not go unpunished. The
office of the dean of students penalizes hundreds of students each
year for academic dishonesty, said Senior Associate Dean Cary
Porter. The office does not compile cheating statistics, so was
unable to give an exact number.
How they do it On the condition they remain
unidentified, several students shared how they cheated at UCLA,
using various methods and having eluded getting caught. A
fifth-year student said he has used an orchestrated and effective
“V-formation” cheating method. The method entails
designating one or two students to study for the exam and to
genuinely take the exam. The others involved in the scheme then sit
behind the designated students in the shape of a “V,”
each student successively copies off the test in front. The method
enables students to take advantage of most professors’
policies of seating students in every other seat during exams.
“We had a professor who was really clueless,” the
student said. The same student said he had a roommate his first
year that used the BruinCard office to help him cheat on exams. The
student said on two occasions, his roommate had a friend who worked
in the office make fake student identification cards, allowing
another person to take the exams in his place. BruinCard officials
say they have not noted such activity and they prevent false
issuances by requiring students to present a different form of
identification before processing a BruinCard. Whatever the method,
the consensus among students who admitted to cheating was that
getting away with dishonesty ““ an epidemic that seems to
reach all corners of campus ““ was easy. A second-year student
said he cheats in big lecture halls, where it is easier to look at
other students’ tests. A third-year student said she cheated
on her theater final. There were too many facts to memorize, she
said, so she and a friend made cheat sheets and used them on the
exam. A fourth-year student said she has cheated in almost every
class she’s taken, “from history to sociology to
psychology to biology.” When asked how many classes she had
cheated in, the student said: “How many classes have I taken
at UCLA?” The methods she’s used are numerous: looking
over shoulders, communicating with friends, bringing in pre-written
papers, and obtaining past tests and papers. “You do what you
can to stay in “¦ it’s a rush, it’s like
gambling,” she said, seated on the steps of the College
Library. She added that for students like herself, who are looking
to go to graduate school, GPAs become more important and cheating
becomes more attractive.
Zero tolerance The nearby Tony Elazari, a
third-year history student, interjected with his objections to what
the student had to say. “Did you see the orientation
video?” he asked, referring to the video shown during the
freshmen orientation program depicting students caught cheating.
“The zero-tolerance policy is very effective.” UCLA
policy forbids any form of academic dishonesty including cheating,
fabrication, plagiarism and multiple submissions, according to the
dean of students’ office. When a student is caught cheating,
the professor or TA who believes the student has cheated has the
responsibility to report the incident to the dean’s office,
said Assistant Dean Brian Carlisle. After the professor or TA turns
in supporting documentation, a summons is sent to the student.
Depending on whether the student denies or admits to the
accusation, the appropriate response will be imposed, Carlisle
said. Sanctions that could be imposed on the student include
suspension, expulsion (a prohibition from attending UCLA for a
period of time) or dismissal (a prohibition from attending any
University of California campus). If the student denies the
allegation, but evidence against the student exists, the dean
refers the case to the Student Conduct Committee, Carlisle said.
“The job of the dean is not to determine who we believe the
most, but if there is evidence,” Carlisle said. “We
look at the totality of all the circumstances,” he added.
“There is no standard in place … Each case is
unique.” Carlisle also said the deans consult with each other
and look at past precedents. Though it is difficult to judge
whether the number of incidents recorded have increased in recent
years, Porter said there have been more sanctions issued for
cheating this quarter than during fall 2002. Besides the freshman
orientation video, the office educates the community about cheating
policies through presentations to teaching assistants, academic
tutors and ethics courses in the curriculum.
Athletic treatment Some students believe
athletes, who are under more academic scrutiny, are more prone to
cheating than the average student. The dean of students’
office makes special presentations about cheating during athlete
orientation sessions, Porter said. Porter said he could not assess
if instances of cheating occur more frequently with athletes.
“There are no different rules for athletes,” Porter
said, adding that when an athlete’s case is brought into his
office, he takes into consideration their status as an athlete just
as he would any other student. Some athletes do admit to cheating,
but maintain they are no different from any other student.
“(Many students) cheat; athletes, non-athletes,” said a
male athlete who declined to comment any further on why he believes
athletes do not cheat more frequently than other students. A female
athlete said though she has cheated to a small extent, she still
becomes frustrated with the stereotype. “It sucks that if
someone gets caught and they’re athletes, it goes public, but
when someone else gets caught, it doesn’t go public. It makes
us all look bad,” she said. But her teammate, joining the
conversation answered the question of why such a stereotype that
athletes cheat exists: “Because we do.” The athletes
refused to reveal their names, saying, “Our coach would kill
us.”
Instructors’ strategies While some
students say cheating is easy to accomplish, many professors and
TAs have taken measures to prevent it. In his classes, chemistry
and biochemistry professor Steven Hardinger says cheating may be a
“rarity.” This could be due to one of two reasons,
Hardinger says. Either students have respect for his zero-tolerance
policy or he is not catching the students in the act. Hardinger
believes the former is true. In his class of over 200 students,
Hardinger has many ways of deterring students from doing cheating.
Since most of his students plan on going to medical school,
Hardinger said he scares students by telling they could
“forget getting into med school” if they cheat.
Hardinger also uses the anti-plagiarism Web site Turnitin.com. When
students turn in papers to the Web site, the papers are compared
with all documents online. Being one of the first professors to use
the software when it came out in 2001, Hardinger said it is an
effective way to avert plagiarism. Another way to catch plagiarism
is to simply be aware of the resources students use, said English
teaching assistant Jon Naito. A plagiarized paper has a completely
different voice and style than a student normally does, Naito said.
“It’s a lot easier to catch than students think,”
he said, adding that one case in particular sticks out. One student
turned in a paper that was written by a major figure, known
throughout the literary community, he said, laughing out loud. The
student was reported to the dean. Both Naito and Gordon Kipling, an
English professor attribute this increase in incidents of
plagiarism to the Internet. “The Internet seduces people into
thinking using the information on (it) is not plagiarizing,”
Kipling said. In fact, it is very rare for cheating not to occur
with the technology and resources available to students, said
Naito, who has caught students cheating in three of the five
quarters he has been at UCLA. “It is a major concern,”
Naito said.
“Not worth it” During fifth-year
student Eric Carpenter’s physics midterm, he said he noticed
a student overtly cheating. The cheating student was almost out of
his seat, trying to look at the test of the person in front of him,
said Carpenter, a math and applied science student. He added that
the professor did not notice. “This is ridiculous,”
Carpenter said he blurted out during the exam. Frustrated with his
own studying being undermined, Carpenter said he reported the
incident to his professor afterwards. Cheating is not worth the
risk involved, he said. Cheating is also not worth the risk of
being rejected from graduate school, said Tom Miller, a graduate
student in chemistry. Miller added that some undergraduate
students’ cheating ways will not be compatible with the
individual nature of graduate school. Across the Kerckhoff patio
table from Miller, Peter Gozyna, another graduate student in
chemistry, nodded in agreement. “It’s sad that
undergrads feel the need to cheat “¦ It’s not going to
help you,” he said.