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One Student's Story

The following essay was written by a Rutgers student who was found responsible for a violation of academic integrity. As part of his sanction, the student was required to attend the University Hearing Board’s Academic Integrity Presentation. The student has generously agreed to share his thoughts with the campus community, in the hope that other students can benefit from his experience.

The presentation I attended on academic integrity was one that every incoming freshman should be required to attend. The speaker touched on almost everything I would have said had I run the lecture after what I know now. In reflection, I ask myself, “Why do so many people, including myself before this whole experience, see cheating as a helpful way out of their problems?”

The speaker went over the many reasons why students cheat, such as they don't know the rules of the school, poor time management, or personal issues distract them from studying. He also went over the ways to help students through these reasons for cheating. I feel a major cause of cheating is that so many see competing successfully in this competitive world today as impossible without the help of a little cheating now and then. Students are paranoid that they are not going to do well in life and they're going to let down themselves and their parents. This is a pretty powerful state of mind that is hard to reverse but one that almost any student can relate to.

I feel people who cheat know that using a cheat sheet or looking at a neighbor’s paper is wrong. They probably even know that doing something wrong to achieve success is not really success. The problem isn't that students aren't knowledgeable about cheating and morality. It’s that they just don't care and just care about the result. This is also a powerful state of mind that is hard to reverse. Most students see studying as long, hard, often boring. Many wonder why they should study when you can just cheat and get away with it. With America getting more competitive and harder to make money, I can see why a decline in ethics has become such a problem. It’s often hard to simply tell someone cheating is wrong and for them to fully grasp it. Cheating is such a personal issue that everyone has to individually discover why it is morally wrong. I do feel this particular presentation was useful because it clearly showed why the validity of your degree is important, the punishments if you’re caught cheating, and how your life will be affected from cheating. It gave students a clear opportunity to personally reflect on the issue. The speaker gave really good advice and lessons and I hope students there took it to heart. I feel this presentation is very useful because people can change their ways due to good advice and they don't have to necessarily go through negative consequence to learn a lesson.

Would this presentation have affected me if I saw it before the fateful exam?
Sadly, I feel the only way I could have truly learned this valuable lesson was for me to get caught and have to go through this extensive judicial process. I don't feel that everyone abides to this, but for me personally, getting caught is what it took. And not just because I got caught. Yes, the act of getting caught was extremely embarrassing and shameful, but during these past months is the first time I sat down and thought about what it means to be a cheater. I obviously knew before that cheating was wrong, but I never truly took to heart what it means and what it says about yourself to be a cheater. How else can one have a true sense of pride in accomplishments if he or she cheats their way through things? That pride resulting from achieving something honestly really means a lot to me now. The term, “You’re only hurting yourself by cheating” was another expression I had always heard throughout life. I now really know what this means. Not only do you hurt yourself by risking getting caught, but you don't learn the material you need to know for the future. You give yourself a false sense of success by getting a grade you don't deserve.

One valuable piece of advice the speaker said was that it’s just better to get the one bad grade rather than cheat. It’s not the end of the world and it will only motivate you to try harder. By cheating, you won’t know to try harder and you will stand still and not progress. Honest and consistent progress is one of the most important things to becoming a true success. There was one slide in the presentation that showed a list of all the people one had to see and talk to during the long judicial process. During this slide I just wanted to stand up and tell everyone there how painful this process really is. How emotional it is, and how shamed you feel going through it. I wanted to tell everyone how lucky I was just not to get expelled and how no one should ever take their attendance at this University for granted.  One bad decision can really affect the rest of your life. People really need to know the value of an honest degree earned. There is no way anyone can succeed at their future job if they cheated their way through college and didn't learn the material needed. The problem is, do people care about that value as long as they have the degree? I know I now care about the validity of the degree and I believe this presentation will help many realize that, too.