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.
DDearborn … I gather from your “nickname” that you likely live near me. I’d only add that in my world, and likely yours, as it evolved, the bulk of collegiate folks are not from the 1%, but are working stiffs going to school at night if they must (to work in the daytime) or daytime otherwise because they can’t afford the 1% schools, regardless of their SAT’s etc. I just cannot imagine incurring the debt students do today. Digging a hole that is hard to climb out of IMO.
I agree that schools today are more permissive and dismissive of “cheating” and I don’t know the answer of how to change that. I’d say more “seminar” type classes, perhaps, where you have to stand up and defend your answers or positions in front of the whole class, and are graded on that performance rather than a multiple choice computer scored test. I was very lucky to have gone to college when “seminar” formats were frequent, both out-of-state (U of Wisc) and in Detroit. Seems like antiquity now.
BTW I realize that respect from one’s peers does not equate with financial success. I’d have been a wreck in the world of Wall Street…because I can’t act without consideration of everyone. Yes, it has cost me rank and privilege but I sleep well each night.
Why does the idea of “cheating” in “ethics” classes just ring my bell?
When rubber meets the road (like in a real job) you soon learn respect is earned by what you do, not by what you say. How does “cheating” in an “ethics” class pre-condition one to perform in the real world?
Man, I am just lost on this subject, or too old to understand it. I am aware of my age more and more every day. When you realize you are just “out of it,” it isn’t pleasant.
Welcome to Wall Street………..The ethics class of 2015.
laudyms said …
In a few years these jerks might be your surgeons, or your air traffic controllers….
That remark made me chuckle…as I’ve related before, at one time I was Cadre training Judge Advocate and Medial officers….and that exact thought occurred to me…all wanted to acquire “Expert” rifle badges and yes, we did allow for a bit of “cheating” on the peer to peer scoring system on the ranges. As it turned out, down the road I did have to rely on Army medical officers to put my head back together. They did a superb job, due to they key medical skills, unrelated to their sloppy marksmanship.
Hmmm
The message the College is sending is that cheating, while frowned upon, is really OK. So go ahead and cheat, because it isn’t going to effect you GPA let alone get you kicked out. Besides a very large number of the student body are from the 1%: A group that generally considers lying, cheating, bribing and stealing a normal part of their business. Why should anyone be surprised when their kids act the same way?
I don’t go to doctors or vets and I only fly on planes with my half blind guy when necessary. But these guys are likely to turn out as bus drivers. This country is going to hell in a handbasket. Word Press says hand basket is two words. I say one. What do you folks think?
In a few years these jerks might be your surgeons, or your air traffic controllers…. best take the bus.
I’m blaming it on hoser, Canucks. Dartmouth is just too close to Hoserland
“Ethos in Greek originally meant “habitat” – the environment animals and people live in. This makes no sense unless you think about the meaning of “ethics” (a direct etymological descendent of ethos). An ethical person fits her audience’s rules and values the same way a penguin fits the peculiar habitat of an iceberg. Ethos has to do with a person’s ability to fit in with a group’s expectations.” – Jay Heinrichs
Look on the bright side. Over two hundred students didn’t cheat.
Why blame Obama when you can eliminate the middleman and go directly to blaming Bush?
bewwahhahahah “58% of the Federal budget, or a whopping 2.5+ trillion dollars a year spent on income assistance”
To whom? Lockheed Martin? What a joke. Deduct payroll taxes from your total, and add back corporate welfare of all stripes.
On second thought, how could I be so blind; we are clearly living in a second American century (the first being cast with a 90% top marginal tax rate no less) because everyone is doing so darn well!
Wingers never fail to amuse. The dems controlled congress for an hour once (less a filibuster, but that’s a nit) and it was in THAT hour that it all went into decline.. of course!
I think if we think real hard, we should be able to blame this on Obama. C’mon Olly, Nick, Paul, Pogo, you can do it.
issac – what are we supposed to blame on Obama, the lack of ethics in an ethics class? I have worked with athletes before, that is not going to work. 🙂 Should we blame that they only got one grade lower, already said that was reasonable.
Ronald Reagan majored in economics in college, fool.
A Left Winger relying on imaginary facts to prove his fictional point seems to be SOP around here.
So even the Dartmouth athletic department is “too big to fail”…
@American Patriot – 13JAN15 9:39AM
A Right Winger talking about anything to do with honor is like Ronald Reagan talking about economics, or George Bush talking about truth – just doesn’t fly.
ex-canuck – nice ad hominem attack there. Got too liberal in Canada for you? or too cold?
58% of the Federal budget, or a whopping 2.5+ trillion dollars a year spent on income assistance in this country and bci thinks that somehow equates to “eat or be eaten”. Gotta work hard at that kind of persecution complex.
These were answers given by clicker during the professors lecture. It is not like a pop quiz, etc. And he was not talking role. He finally figured out that he was getting more total answers than students facing him in the classroom.
A drop of one grade is not unreasonable.
Chip, that’s quite true.
brave captain of industry:
“two generations of right wing nuts reducing American life to the law of the jungle”
What country are you writing about?
The one that has been growing the socialist paradigm since FDR?
That elected a former socialist community organizer as Prez, whose biography was penned by a terrorist, and both Houses were Democrat that year as well.
That country?
ha ha ha.
Hey American Patriot, its a result of two generations of right wing nuts reducing American life to the law of the jungle. Eat or be eaten, only the strong rule. In that environment, cheating is not only smart, its virtually mandatory.