When I was a college student, I was one of those honest idiots who just took the grade I got. I just figured the amount of work I put into a class would reflect in the grade I got at the end of the semester. I did a fair amount of work, but I wasn’t a stellar student who hit the books hard and always got good grades. The truth is I didn’t become a good student until my junior year of college — that’s when things started to change in terms of my motivation level toward school and my grades.
Freshman and sophomore years of college were a time when (except for my film, TV, acting, and humanities classes) my grades languished in the B to C range. I was just “average” to “above average” in my classes, and never really put in anything extra in terms of effort unless it had to do with a creative field.  My chemistry class was taken “credit/no credit” (I got “no credit” because I don’t think I ever studied for that class), biology was completed with a C, and somehow I avoided math classes until my senior year.
I wasn’t the kind of guy who aspired to great academic heights (ironic, since I actually graduated from a school that was pretty impressive in terms of academic heights), but I was also a guy who never bothered with cheating (And really, it’s kind of hard to cheat on a film final when your “final exam” is the film project you’ve been working on for weeks).Â
Anyway, all this has to do with a “grade for cash” scandal at the junior college I attended my first two years of college. At Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, CA, 34 students (and former students) have been arrested because they either changed or paid someone to change their grades on the college computers that store grade transcripts.Â
According to the SF Chronicle: “The charges range from felony conspiracy and fraudulent computer access to false use of a diploma, a misdemeanor. The suspects face up to three years in prison for each felony count…Court documents say the grade changes enabled some students to graduate or transfer from the community college to four-year universities, including UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, San Francisco State University, San Jose State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and San Diego State.
College officials believe as many as 400 grades were changed from 2000 to 2006 in deals that sometimes involved payments of thousands of dollars to at least four students who had worked in the admissions office and had access to change computerized transcripts.”
Regarding cheating in school, I would say that I’m very strict when it comes students trying to pull a fast one. I used to structure my classes so the tests on what the students knew about a particular subject were challenging but fair. Students who did the work (i.e., reading the books, taking notes, participating in the discussions) did well. Students who slacked, never really came to class, or bothered to crack a book, failed — or they dropped the course. If you got an A in my class, you did the work and you earn it. It all seems simple and expected, right? You do excellent work, your grade should reflect your efforts. You half-ass it and your grade should reflect what little effort you put into the class.
Okay, I’m stepping off my soapbox now, but I’m curious, would you consider the following cheating?
1. Someone wrote a paper for you — but you didn’t pay them.
2. Someone told you what was going to be on a test — but didn’t give you the answers.
3. You “recycle” a paper you wrote for one class and turn it in for another.
4. A lab partner gives you the results of an experiment that you didn’t do a lick of work on.
5. You catch a glimpse of a professor’s final exam question 2 weeks before the test, but only see a snippet that mentions a book you didn’t bother to read.
 –PK
Ml
July 25, 2007 at 7:59 amAnd they thought they would get away with it? Not very bright.
I consider all of the items you listed as cheating.
lalapunci
July 25, 2007 at 8:08 amAh, we’re getting into the grey areas. I have known spouses, parents, and significant others who have written papers or heavily edited them for students. My Profs knew I had written my papers. They were written like engineers write, terribly.
I was like you, I got what I got for my efforts. Therefore my gpa wasn’t stellar. I did much better in grad school because I was more motivated and focused.
J
July 25, 2007 at 8:15 am1. Someone wrote a paper for you — but you didn’t pay them.
Cheating.
2. Someone told you what was going to be on a test — but didn’t give you the answers.
Cheating, though not as bad.
3. You “recycle†a paper you wrote for one class and turn it in for another.
maybe cheating…you’re not showing that you’ve leared what they want you to learn…but the work is yours. I’ve done this one, and the grade the second time around is never as good, because heck, the paper wasn’t written for that class, and it usually shows.
4. A lab partner gives you the results of an experiment that you didn’t do a lick of work on.
Cheating
5. You catch a glimpse of a professor’s final exam question 2 weeks before the test, but only see a snippet that mentions a book you didn’t bother to read.
Erm…did you TRY to look, or was it an accident? If it were an accident, I think I would just count myself lucky and read that damn book!
And since when did people have to cheat to get into SF State? 😉
I watched a bit of the 10:00 news last night, and this was the lead story.
And in school, I pretty much figured I got the grades I deserved. Even when I turned in a paper for two classes, I wouldn’t argue when I got a different grade. I knew it wasn’t for that class, and sucked it up.
But in a culture where, as Big Sis told us, Berkeley will SELL the right to wear an honors sash at graduation to those who didn’t have the grades, it seems to me that getting good grades for cash wouldn’t seem quite as bad as it once did. I’m not condoning it…I’m implicating Berkeley in being complicit and encouraging the same kind of behavior.
MsMamma
July 25, 2007 at 9:48 amDamn, that J sure is a gem! Pretty close to always being right on all the freakin’ time!
University Update - UCLA - On Cheating
July 25, 2007 at 9:53 am[…] State University Link to Article ucla On Cheating » Posted at Py Korry on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 On […]
Andrew Cory
July 25, 2007 at 10:05 am2: It depends on the circumstance. I’m fairly sure that you told us the essay topics in advance, but the studying was up to us. Giving the questions for multiple choice tests, though, would be much closer to cheating…
Number 3 isn’t cheating, though I’ll echo J’s comments above. As for the rest: Hang the bastards…
Gina
July 25, 2007 at 11:11 amHello! On number one, it would still be cheating, even if you paid them!
Dot
July 25, 2007 at 1:01 pmAll cheating. And they are only cheating themselves..Eventually it’s gonna catch up to ya.
Lalunas
July 25, 2007 at 2:26 pmPossibly the recycle of the paper I wrote for one class and I was really caught up for time to write another one. I did not know that was consider cheating..