This New York Times article discussed the return of the students who were asked to leave Harvard for 1 year because of a widespread cheating scandal. In August of 2012, a large amount of students were caught cheating on a take home exam that they were told to complete without the help of their peers. The students were allowed to use their notes, textbooks, and the Internet, but they were not supposed to confer with one another. It was discovered that many students were sharing answers with one another and also meeting with some of the assistant professors to get extra help regarding the take home exam. Many of the students felt as though the class that they had cheating in was extremely confusing and much more challenging than it should have been, which they explained, lead them to cheat. Because of this scandal Harvard is enforcing a much stricter honor code and they are much “more explicit about laying down ethical standards for their classes” (New York Times). Students have reported that this semester there is a lot more emphasis on plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. Some students believe that the stressed honor code is a good thing and will encourage students to refrain from cheating, but others believe that an honor code is not something that can be taught, that it is a “culture” and will be hard to imprint in the students. Harvard has shown that schools need to be more proactive about preventing plagiarism and promoting academic integrity.
The article relates to the truth in various ways. Students cheated on a take home final exam, which means they lied in order to alter their grade. It is important to tell the truth because it establishes your own credibility. When a student cheats, the only person who they are hurting is themselves. They miss out on the information they could have known, which would of attributed to their intelligence, but instead they choose to take the “easy” way out, when in fact, it is not easy at all. Once someone is caught, they lose their credibility and standard in the eyes of the teacher and other people who know about the act. Even though that student might be sorry, it still does not take away from the disappointment the educator may hold, and it does not stop the people from talking. One of the students involved complains, “It’s weird because I think everybody knows why I was gone, and it’s what they were talking about the whole time, but nobody says anything to my face,” but if he or she wouldn’t have cheated, and did the test truthfully, based on his or her knowledge, this student wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.