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Students do not seem to be deterred from cheating on exams despite the new technology UCLA profes

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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.