Of our regular writers, four are or have been college professors, one has been a high school teacher, and a number of them are now graduate students. For us, academic cheating is an issue we are keenly aware of and have struggled against for many years.

Earlier this year Gibbs published articles on the issue of student cheating, and we interviewed students from UC Berkeley and other local colleges on why cheating occurs. Their reasoning was illogical to us, but it made sense to them.

Last week, an Oakland newspaper published an interview with a student, Ms. Audrey Lin, who is a UC Berkeley student. This student admitted cheating while in a local high school of some repute. She said cheating in high school was a common occurrence, and although she was atop her class, she cheated on a number of occasions.

Her confession brought varying responses from the student body of that school, alumni, as well as from parents with students presently attending the school. An alumnus, now at the University of Arizona, was outraged and saddened by the top student's confession of cheating, and rationalizing it by saying all students cheat. The UoA student vigorously denied having ever cheated, but confessed he always wanted to be the top student at that school while Ms. Lin attended. Now he sees why he was not able to be: he never cheated but attained his grades honestly. Ms. Lin is now enrolled at the school she cheated to get into--UC Berkeley.

Whereas we applaud the young UC Berkeley student for coming forth and admitting she and many other students similarly situated cheat, that applause is very shorted lived--it is the applause one gives a robber for allowing him to keep bus fare of his own money. She admits to cheating only after she has achieved her goal of getting into a top named school. Such admission may be as dishonest as the act of cheating itself. Her end in cheating has been achieved; there is no cost to her in becoming honest now. Certainly Stephen L. Carter, lawyer and ethicist, would argue that such honesty is insufficient; for it comes at no cost to her, and for honesty to be sufficient, it must have integrity. To admit having stolen and eaten cookies after the act, when safely out of reach brings honor--the cookies are eaten, her desire has been satisfied, she is removed beyond the scope of justice. True honesty would have been to put in abeyance her wayward desires and, instead, struggle as we all to maintain our moral balance until she could lawfully attain them. Certainly, one is not rightfully crowned unless that person strives lawfully.

There can be no honesty in cheating, but there is serious danger to all of us in student cheating. Our students today, are our leaders, engineers, lawyers, doctors, CPA's, police, pilots, architects, etc., of tomorrow. These are the people this nation of intertwined citizens will depend on for their safety, their well-being; we will depend on them to build our buildings, make our cars, make products and things we are so routinely rely on. If one has cheated, there is a gap not only in that person's ethics but also in that person's knowledge. That gap could mean the difference between life and death in our medicine, in whether a building stands or falls, in whether a pilot knows what to do during times of emergency.

We are not an island unto ourselves. That has been the fallacy of Americans too long. We are interdependent and intertwined with each other. It was Delaine Easten's words that linger with such clarity, spoken as she campaigned to become California's Superintendent of Schools, that I paraphrase here. She responded to a question posed by a radio caller: "Why should I pay taxes for public schools when I have no children and will have none?" She responded, "When I travel up and down this state in an airplane, it is not my daughter or son flying that plane; when I go into buildings throughout this nation, it is not my daughter or son who has built those structures, but I want the best pilots, the best architects, the best and most highly trained minds possible to be at the helm and to have built these buildings, because we all depend upon each other." That is why cheating is so harmful to all of us.

This nation cannot afford the myopic notion of my four and no more. The idea that I will educate my children so they are the best above their neighbors is antebellum logic in the face of the interdependent nature of us all. Whereas you may have your children better educated than another's, it may be the others, less well educated children that you are depending on. Whereas your children may be in the best schools, they may have cheated to get there and not know what they are reputed to know, and that could mean someone's death.

Among many parents and students, UC Berkeley has become a cult-frenzied school. Many, like Ms. Audrey Lin, are doing anything to get into Berkeley. That is tragic! And cheating students do not stop cheating once they enter Berkeley's doors. Indeed, cheating has gone up at Berkeley, in the last 10-years, by 744%. That is staggering. And look at some of the surveys and research coming out of Berkeley; some of it is a disgrace to the institution. What has happened to the honor students who cheated to get into special schools like Berkeley? They produce shabby research and disgrace the universities they so coveted to enter. When the competition is keen, students who cheated in high school will revert to their old ways.

Little Ms. Lin may have gotten into Berkeley and confessed that she cheated to achieve the grades needed to enter, but will she now admit that she is cheating to survive the UC Berkeley competition? Probably not now; that comes after she has reached her goal. There is no honor to a whistle-blower who also engages in the same actions she decries, when having found safe harbor. Ms. Lin's honesty is no honesty at all. []
A Gibbs Editorial opinion