Hours of manpower and months of work over the summer have yielded significant gains in Yeshiva's war on cheating in its undergraduate colleges. Spurred by rampant rumors of large-scale cheating during the spring semester finals period, the undergraduate academic deans formed a task force to explore every vector involved in this epidemic. "When cheating occurs, the students should be collectively ashamed of themselves," exclaimed Norman Adler, Dean of Yeshiva College, expressing a combination of anger and disappointment in his student body. "We will spend the year comprehensively discussing and studying the problem of cheating," Adler continued as he expressed the need to "change the culture," of Yeshiva students.

"Highlighting the problem is that kids here in Yeshiva think that it is okay to cheat," elaborated a senior Yeshiva College faculty member corroborating Adler's perception of the issue.

The Yeshiva College faculty, to a degree, believes that the Mazer Yeshiva Program rebbeim are not always cooperative when it comes to solving the problem. "Cheating is the cat that won't die," one administrator pointed out, "and unfortunately, it's still staying alive because the rebbeim have not spoken out enough against it."

MYP, however, disagrees. Rabbi Blau admitted that the Roshei HaYeshiva do not meet very often, but stressed that they speak to their respective students themselves. "We have always made it abundantly clear that from both a halachic and an ethical perspective, cheating is not to be tolerated. And cheating covers everything, from stealing exams to obtaining an identical test that the teacher gave yesterday at Stern because the student thinks that it was the 'teacher's fault' for being so careless."

MYP Dean Rabbi Zevulun Charlop also emphatically denied that rebbeim have been ignoring the issue. He did promise, however, that in light of the proliferation of cheating incidents and methods last spring, he will write a letter condemning cheating in all its forms signed by all the rebbeim and impress it again upon his faculty members to illuminate these principles to their students.

Instead of merely denying that MYP was to blame, Charlop attributed a lot of the problems to the pressure invariably felt by the students. He placed part of the blame on Yeshiva College, whose calendar leaves students with rigorous - and highly pressurized - school semesters. "The cheating problem would decrease considerably if the intense academic atmosphere at Yeshiva College was stretched over a longer period of time. To believe that we could work with these realities without making structural changes - such as lengthening the school week and the school year, and accentuating a fifth year program - is faulty logic. Even the best students bend under pressure."

In this last respect, Assistant Dean Joyce Jesionowski said, "The problems here at Yeshiva College are no different than any other college."

"Ethical behavior must be the cornerstone of an education here," affirmed Dr. Charles Snow, newly appointed Dean of the Sy Syms School of Business, a school plagued by allegations and rumors of rampant cheating during the spring testing period. "We all know what goes on in the business world with insider trading and other illegal and unethical practices, but we fall under Jewish regulations," Snow continued. "We must inculcate our students with these values."

Dr. Karen Bacon testified that "there were no reports of incidents of cheating at Stern." However, the dean of the Stern College for Women did admit that, "at a meeting with the academic deans, Dr. Gurock expressed concerns over rumors of cheating on behalf of Dr. Lamm. The deans affirmed their continued vigilance on the subject."

Regarding the apparent lack of cheating occurring in Stern, Bacon qualified, "I don't take credit for anything, because in a moment the entire thing can be undone. Our students have a sense and understanding of an intellectual contract with their peers and the faculty and they respect and value that relationship." Other observers were slightly more cynical. In the words of one individual quite familiar with the Deans Office of Yeshiva College, "Just because Stern claims to be free from cheaters doesn't mean that cheating does not go on at Stern. And, by the way, I never speed or roll through stop signs."

A sensitive side issue deals not only with cheating per se, but with what to do when one sees others cheat. Some faculty have expressed interest in establishing a so-called "honor code," a system in which the administration would abdicate all efforts to enforce issues of academic integrity and students would be responsible to uphold an agreed-upon code of honesty. But many critics believe that an honor code is doomed to fail because of the currently pervasive culture in which students often help their friends cheat. As well, Rosh HaYeshiva Rabbi Jeremy Wieder believes that this honor code could potentially lead to disaster, as it would invite students harboring grudges against others to falsely accuse them of cheating.

According to Wieder, therefore, a designated administrator should be appointed to collect information, to verify whether a suspected student has actually cheated, and to keep logs on cheaters and their offenses. Wieder also suggested that the war against cheating is not only about redefining the word and enforcing punishments. "You can do what you can to beef up security, but there's always a better thief. We must change the moral ethos."

Dean Bacon asserts that "an Honor Code is something that is worth looking at, but we cannot rush into that type of a solution; it must be studied first." She continued to explain the nature of a remedy, "We are informal community of students and faculty and changing human behavior is not done by building fences, but by fostering and strengthening the social contract."

But in addition to rhetoric of moral and cultural change among the student body, administrators in both of Yeshiva's uptown undergraduate colleges are considering a number of practical plans to curb cheating. SSSB Dean Charles Snow explained that when he took his new post, he chose not to pursue what happened last year, specifically as it occurred before his tenure began. "A better use of time was focusing energies on ensuring that it will not occur in the future," he said.

Although he said that that he could not divulge all the details of his plan directly, he did assert that he "will make proper arrangements to ensure that the methods and avenues that were rumored to have been exploited last year would not be open in the future." Snow plans to personally interject himself into this process, jumping headfirst into the cheating fray. "I will monitor classes and the administering of finals. I met with my staff during the summer and we set out to discuss what the highest level of security we can give." In short, explained Snow, as many sustainable short-term measures as are necessary will be taken to eradicate cheating from SSSB.

Snow did elaborate somewhat on the pragmatic steps towards making it more difficult for cheaters to get their hands on tests prior to and during exam dates. He said that SSSB will attempt to eliminate the notion of active mesorah in Syms and that faculty had been instructed that they are not to give an exam that has been administered within the last generation of active students. "I will personally look at each final to ensure this," claimed Snow. "We must ensure the academic integrity of the school and we are taking steps necessary to ensure the academic integrity of the school. It is incumbent on faculty to prepare a new exam if they want to teach here." However, not wishing to be misunderstood as someone who fails to grasp the necessity of long-term cultural and attitudinal changes, Syms Dean Snow emphasized that, "regulation is nice and important, but we will couple that effort with open discussion and dialogue of business ethics."

Although Yeshiva College seems to be taking some measures to make cheating more difficult, there was a clear disagreement in ideology between Yeshiva College and SSSB. One member of Yeshiva's Academic Standards Committee claimed, "We talked about cheating at an Academic Standards Committee meeting, but no short-term measures were adopted by faculty. The prevailing view was that we must find a long-term solution to this epidemic. I often find that wholesale short-term measures are not profitable."

Speaking of the efforts that YC has adopted to combat cheating in the College, Adler stated, "We have met intensely over the summer. We produced the Academic Code of Integrity. We decided that the faculty would be administering their own exams. According to their contracts, adjuncts must proctor their own exams. No more inappropriate proctors in exams--[And] we will be submitting a full report to the Academic Vice President." Still, the tendency among YC administrators was to emphasize the need for long-term dialogue and ideological shifts, as opposed to more stringent policing of students' academic work.

Although significant disparities exist between the various analyses of the cheating problem offered by administrators of Yeshiva's different schools, the one element that students, faculty, Roshei HaYeshiva, deans, and administrators seem to unanimously agree upon is that a prevalent cheating problem exists at Yeshiva. The points of contention remain the question of accountability for the problem and, more importantly, the issue of how the problem should be approached and, hopefully, solved. But, as one administrator warily pointed out, if Yeshiva wishes to maintain its precarious position on the fringes of the list of the nation's top universities, enhancing the academic integrity of its students represents an integral challenge that the University must - quickly and resolutely - address.