LeVeaux is a local college student. He will be writing articles for Gibbs at various times. In this interview, he sought out five students for interviews.

In response to recent reports on cheating at the University of Virginia, a survey of San Francisco Bay Area college students was conducted last week on the University of California, Berkeley, and California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco campuses.   

While the survey’s sample is not large enough to characterize a general, Bay Area student perspective, it does give some  insight into how various students in the region view cheating.   

When asked to define cheating, student responses ranged from, “breaking the rules” and “copying someone’s work without crediting the source," to “not being true to yourself.”  One student felt cheating to be behavior with intentions to “make [one’s] life easier while going against [his or her] moral values.” 

The respondents unanimously felt that collegiate cheating is perpetuated by a culture of competition, and that this culture negatively affects society in the long run.  

“If you cheat in college, you’ll [cheat] out of college,” said a UC Berkeley student, "and that creates a community of unproductive participants."  

Each student made it clear that he or she was opposed to cheating, but  quite a few identified special conditions under which they felt cheating was justifiable.  According to one respondent, cheating is OK if done for altruistic reasons.  Another felt it justifiable under unjustifiable circumstances, reasoning that, “if a student cheated on a test because the professor was asking way too much, or didn’t give enough time to prepare,” it wouldn't be dishonest. 

As far as dealing with cheaters, student opinions varied: 

“I think the punishment should fit the crime,” responded a recent Dartmouth graduate.  That student felt that small, isolated incidents should go relatively unpunished, or at least the offender should be granted a warning before expulsion is pursued.  Others felt expulsion to be appropriate with the first offense. 

Students pointed out that the greatest motivating force for cheating is the competitive environment, particularly in the science and engineering departments.  A UC Berkeley Molecular Cell Biology major felt that the pressure to do well, coupled with stiff competition, makes students more apt to pursue high scores at any cost. 

Society, as a whole, was blamed for pressuring students to perform; that concept was not a part of the discussion when students discussed ways to discourage cheating. []

Another essay on cheating students

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