Dartmouth college has suspended 64 students in what appears an unprecedented action over cheating. What makes the action even more unnerving is that the cheating occurred in an ethics class. Most students have been suspended for a term. Professor Randall Balmer said that he was tipped off when he received more answers to this questions than students in the class.
The class of on sports ethics and involved hand-held electronic clickers which are used to answer questions during college classes. The belief is that some students passed their clickers onto their classmates who answered the questions on their behalf. Initially, 43 of the 280 students were confronted but another 21 came forward after details of the investigation were made public.
The course is designed for athletes and 7 in 10 of the students on the course are members of the various college teams.
Balmer said that the Honor Code is no longer working as it once did because “honour no longer is something that has a lot of resonance in society, and I suppose in some ways it’s not surprising that students would want to trade the nebulous notion of honour with what they perceive as some sort of advantage in professional advancement.”
Notably, however, the violation of honor was not valued at a failing grade. Balmer only dropped the students one grade for cheating.
Nietzche divided Ethics in to Master Ethics and Slave Ethics. Sports Ethics and Business Ethics are variants of Master Ethics where cheating only matters if you caught.
Can’t say I’m taken aback by widespread cheating at a school where the guy teaching ethics considers honor to be a “nebulous concept”.
Sadly, honor is becoming virtually extinct in our culture. Bubba Clinton has some culpability in that sad fact.
Of course, I could have written that, for clarity.
But noooooo.
“So the problem is a big one rather than a small one. And this, somehow, excuses the act?”
I was being critical of Dartmouth, suggesting that the monetary loss and hit to athletics outweighed the honor code.
Pogo,
“If it were one student, they might’ve expelled him.
But 64?”
So the problem is a big one rather than a small one. And this, somehow, excuses the act?
Dropping 1 letter grade? Dividing the grade of all the cheaters by 64 would seem fair. They Failed to apprehend the idea of ethics. I call that a failing grade.
That professor is not teaching ethics and should be fired for cause.
I am a Dartmouth alum ’83, but I regret to say that I do not recall anyone being caught cheating or being expelled for same.
“It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet, there are those who love it!” – Daniel Webster
Cheating at my college meant automatic expulsion. Dartmouth, on the other hand, apparently has an honor code in name only. Good for future employers to know …
My guess is they don’t use clickers in their math courses.
“the scandal was unearthed after Prof Balmer noticed that he was receiving significantly more answers to his questions by electronic clicker than the number of students sitting before him in the lecture theater”
Must be Democrats!
Vote early and often.
If it were one student, they might’ve expelled him.
But 64?
Annual tuition at Dartmouth: $43,782 x 64 = $2,802,048.
Plus, they’re athletes.
Money before dishonor.
“Balmer only dropped the students one grade for cheating. ”
—————————————————————————————–
Only one letter grade? Not too much of a price to pay.
I remember ole Marv cheating on a senior mathematics midterm back when I was in school. The professor walked up behind him and caught him red handed. He was escorted out during the test and we never saw Marv again.
Is Dartmouth a Division I level in sports competition? They ought to end all athletic scholarships and compete with China in math and science. Why does an Ivy League school need competitive sports with dumbschmucks with clickers? The teacher needs to go on to Penn State. If there are any Dartmouth alumni on the blog you should chime in and state your views. If you have any.
Reblogged this on Reality Check and commented:
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the result of the Left training our children to “pass the test” instead of think for themselves.
“honour no longer is something that has a lot of resonance in society”
~+~
True and very sad. Cheating in an ethics class?
When I attended college back in the 1980’s if a student cheated in our program they were run out of college on a rail. We had three students in the class below mine that plagiarized an upperclassman’s work and they were gone three weeks later.
Everyone else wouldn’t have done that because it was wrong–not because they might have been caught. That’s all it took. These three had no business being one of us.
George,
I’d teach them some humility; then honor and character wouldn’t be so difficult to exhibit.
In a small group where everyone knows each other debt is not monetized. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. I do favors for you, you do favors for me.
Honor debts. A debt is paid because the payer feels honor bound to do so. People who only take from the group and never reciprocate are shunned; they have no honor.
Honor = character.
Martin Luther King would have us judge them by their character.
Character is doing the honorable thing even when (especially when) no one is looking.
I wonder if Dartmouth honored their own code with the weak punishment handed out?
I found his phrase ““honour no longer is something that has a lot of resonance in society” very true and very sad indeed.
A nation of Falstaffs.
FALSTAFF
“‘Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay him before his day. What need I be so forward with him that calls not on me?
Well, ’tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? how then?
Can honour set to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no.
What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no.
Doth he hear it? no. ‘Tis insensible, then. Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no.
Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon: and so ends my catechism.“