Volume 67, Issue 8

It’s been a long time since we’ve last spoken, and I want to take this opportunity to welcome everyone back to school.  But, before I continue with a standard column – you know, a list of thank-yous and a preview of upcoming events – I’d like to speak briefly about something that has been on my mind for the past two weeks: cheating.

Although everyone consciously recognizes that cheating is wrong, people still do it.  I have heard at least fifteen different rationalizations for cheating. Each represents an attempt to obscure the fact that cheating is wrong; each of them fails to do so. And unfortunately, cheating is an epidemic that plagues our university.  It robs those students who work hard – yes, teachers do grade on a curve, and if someone does well by cheating, there is a ripple effect on everyone – and it diminishes the value of our diploma.  In short, cheating adversely affects all students.

What’s even worse than the realization that cheating is pervasive in our university is the fact that it is just as prevalent in other colleges and academic institutions.  Let’s be realistic: cheating is just as widespread at Columbia, NYU, Penn, Queens and any other college across the country.  And, contrary to urban legend, cheating has always been a problem in YC and Syms. The phenomenon did not first emerge during the last five years.

So now that we have established that students everywhere cheat, what should we do?  Do we expel all students caught cheating, with the hope of scaring other students out of their dishonesty?  Do we frisk students as they enter exam rooms, deny them trips to the bathroom, and run each test like a warden runs a prison?  Or do we implement an honor code?

The problem is that none of these methods has proven effective on any sort of consistent basis. What other options exist?  I believe that in order to stop cheating, we, the students, must take matters into our own hands.  If we make a conscientious effort to end cheating, it will stop.  Each student has to decide for himself to stop cheating.   I am not by any means proposing that students should be mandated to turn other students in for cheating.  The focus of my idea lies in building up the moral and ethical sensibilities of all YU undergraduates. 

Not only will we end cheating by enhancing our ethics, we will also serve as an Ohr La’Goyim – a light unto the nations.  We will have succeeded where others have failed and, in the process, restore our once-stellar reputation as a premier ethical institution.

Before I conclude this rant and return to the usual stuff, I would like to point out that, while students bear the brunt of the blame for the cheating epidemic, the responsibility to enforce academic integrity lies with the faculty and administration as well.  There is no excuse for a teacher recycling the same test year after year.  None.  If professors are too lazy to change numbers and take different questions from the test bank, it is they who are cheating the students.  Students pay a lot of money to attend Yeshiva University, and lazy, apathetic faculty members shortchange them of the education they deserve. 

Our university administrators are charged with the task of making sure that teachers do not recycle tests. And during Finals time, the administration has one primary responsibility:  proctoring the exams.  If the Dean’s Office cannot do that effectively, then cheating may be the least of our problems.  When I spoke with Rabbi Tendler about the cheating incident, he asked me a simple question, “How can students cheat in the exam rooms?  They are spread out all over the place.”  Of course, there is no excuse for cheating during a final examination, but – and I am now addressing the YC Deans – if the students are allowed to sit wherever they please, then of course there will cheating.  It’s a simple fact.  But, that shouldn’t happen. There are seating charts that are supposed to prevent this possibility.  Can someone please explain to me why, during some exams, the seating charts are not followed?  This is inexcusable and something that should never happen again. 

The only way in which we can eradicate cheating – or at the very least, considerably reduce it – is if we all work together.  The students, faculty and administration form a triangle; if one side doesn’t hold up its end, then the whole structure collapses.

I know that my diatribe went on a little longer than anticipated, so I’ll keep the thank-yous and announcements short.  I am pleased to announce that the Dr. Morton Lowengrub, the Vice President for Academic Affairs, informed me last week that he has procured a donor for the Student Educational Center that will be housed on the first floor of the library, where the YU Museum used to be.  The Educational Center is something that I, along with the rest of the Student Life Committee, have spent months trying to make into a reality. Thanks to Dr. Lowengrub, by next fall, it will be open for students to use. 

This coming month will be a very busy one:  This week, the Jewish Teaching Corps are coming to speak to our students.  Next week, YUNMUN is taking place from Sunday through Tuesday.  Wednesday, the Science Society is hosting an organ donation symposium, and the following night, YSU will be sponsoring M&M – an event featuring a magician and a mentalist.  The following Monday night, Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Executive Vice President of the OU, will be lecturing about peer pressures that college students face.  That’s just what is happening in the next two weeks – and there is a lot more being planned – I hope you enjoy it.¨

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