Thursday, January 14, 1999
They’re watching you
CHEATING: Though it’s often tempting to cheat, giving in can
mean harsh sanctions – and it’s just wrong
By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Contributor
Even three years later, former teaching assistant (TA) in
Spanish Juliet Garsoncan could recall vividly the wild events that
took place during the Spanish 3 final in Dodd Hall.
There were about 200 students taking the exam and all the TAs –
ten strong – were on guard. At one point though, one of the TAs
left the room.
Almost immediately a student came to the front of the room,
claimed she was that TA’s student, and turned her test in.
Garson watched as the student left Dodd, got into a waiting car
– "like a getaway car," Garson recalled with a laugh – and sped
away.
Another TA then examined the student’s test – and found that
stapled behind the cover of the test she returned was not the
original Spanish test, but several blank sheets.
Garson called university police to find the car.
"They stole an exam and that’s school property. It became a
police matter," Garson said.
"It was very dramatic," she added.
UCPD caught the students, who were taken to the Dean of
Students. Garson suspects they were expelled.
There are many reasons for the students wanting to steal the
test: they might have wanted to use it as a guide to take a make-up
test, or they might have wanted to make copies of it and sell it in
the future.
But both these reasons would’ve proved fruitless in the case of
the Spanish department. According to Garson, the make-up test was
an entirely different test, and a new Spanish final is written
every year.
Cheating is not always so dramatic, or so blatant.
Many of the 100 to 150 cases reported each year at UCLA often
come in the form of crib sheets, peeping at open books or notes on
the floor, and sharing answers during exams.
Plagiarism is one of the most common forms of cheating, though.
In some cases, it is extremely easy to determine plagiarism.
Professor Eric Jager of the English department recalled another
professor having once received two of the exact same papers, only
in different sections.
But determining plagiarism is mostly subjective, and professors
and TAs must become familiar with their students’ writing styles in
order to weed out offenders.
Kathleen McAlister, a TA in the English department, can tell if
a student has plagiarized by comparing the style and content
between that student’s first and second essays. In her two years of
teaching on this campus she has only been certain of one case of
plagiarism.
In it, McAlister – then teaching an English 3 class – noticed
that the second essay was an astonishing improvement stylistically
and content-wise. She asked the student to come to her office
hours.
"I asked him to explain his paper, about some of the concepts to
see if he had a real grasp of what he had written," she said.
The student couldn’t explain all of the concepts, but could
vaguely address some of them. McAlister gave him an opportunity to
do another paper, preferring to give him the benefit of the
doubt.
"(Cheating) is one of those things where you have to be
absolutely certain first. You can destroy a student’s academic
career," she said.
"It’s very possible there just was not much effort in the first
paper, while he or she pulled out all the stops in the second,"
McAlister said.
She also pointed out that after a poorly written first essay, a
student might receive help from a friend on the next one, a
perfectly legitimate act.
One incidents at UCLA occurred nearly two years, when Professor
Andras Bodrogligeti allegedly caught 30 students in his elementary
Uzbek class with crib sheets, as well as students looking in
textbooks in the bathroom.
The case quickly turned controversial, as the students weren’t
punished and Bodrogligeti charged that it was because they were
Korean and the university didn’t want to isolate that
community.
Soon afterwards, an investigation of allegations against
Bodrogligeti and his teaching methods began, and one of the TAs in
his class was expelled from the university for allegedly compiling
a study guide and selling it for $200.
The case is still being reviewed today.
Professors and departments are placing more importance on
deterring cheating, and taking a variety of actions to do so.
There are traditional methods, such as making students sit far
apart from each other during exams, checking identification before
each test, and writing a new test each year.
"I never ask the same question twice, even when I have taught a
course 28 times, and always give all students full access to past
exams," said Arthur Gibson, a professor in the biology
department.
Individual departments and professors also have their own way to
prevent cheating. The Spanish department requires its students to
bring in their blue books early so that the TAs can make sure
nothing is already written in them.
Gibson also takes special care to make sure his students don’t
cheat on their homework assignments. Their homework must be written
in pen. Gibson learns to recognize his students’ handwriting and
will file homework assignments for backup in case his memory
fails.
"I want to minimize cheating from happening, so that I don’t
have to deal with suspected cases, which tend to be depressing and
often very time consuming, not to mention traumatic and upsetting
for the person accused," he said.
If a professor believes a student has cheated, the case goes to
the Dean of Students, the department that handles student
misconduct. If the student has already admitted to cheated, he or
she is immediately given a sanction, or punishment.
If a student denies his or her guilt but the Dean’s office has
enough evidence that prove otherwise, the case is then taken to a
Student Conduct Committee. The student will then present his case
before the committee hearing and the university will present its
evidence against the student.
"Everybody’s entitled to due process," said Kathleen McMahon,
the assistant dean of students.
The committee then decides whether the student is guilty or not
and recommends a sanction to the Dean.
Sanctions range from the less severe – such as having to attend
academic workshops and do community service – to the extreme – a
dismissal from the UC system.
The student cannot attend another UC unless he appeals to the
chancellor. Often students will receive a suspension that ranges
from a quarter to a year.
"Sometimes we get creative with the sanction," McMahon said.
How extreme the sanction can be is based upon upon the cheating
act itself, whether it was the student’s first time cheating, and
the mitigating and aggravating circumstances.
Despite the hundreds of cases, TAs and professors alike don’t
believe the situation is that bad on this campus.
"Just to get into UCLA, students have to have a high level of
integrity. Cheating is not something students normally do; it’s
done out of a high level of desperation," McAlister said.
Gibson believes not just in prevention, but that his own
teaching and the students willingness to learn might also be enough
to prevent cheating.
"I will monitor as carefully as possible for cheating, but
really trust, perhaps naively, that by preparing the students, I
have essentially reduced the incentive to cheat," he said.
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