Most morally reprehensible activities are done under-the-radar. The same goes for cheating. That is, students don’t just flat out cheat in front of their teachers — they do it in a more “behind-the-scenes” kind of way. You never hear about cheating scandals involving more than five people at a time, just like you never hear about students blatantly discussing the answers to their exam during their exam.

Instead, there’s always the casual “write the answers under your sleeve” kind of stunt or the “leave the answers in the bathroom” trick — all solo acts, yet all equally punishable. But this wasn’t the case in Prof. David Rubineau’s Organizational Behavior class last month.

Cheating at Cornell

Rubineau, industrial and labor relations, accidentally scheduled an exam on a Jewish holiday. He permitted all of his Jewish students who were observing the holiday to take the test online, while the rest of his class took the test in class. There seemed to be a clear choice for the students allowed to take the test unsupervised: pool half-a-class’s worth of Ivy League intellect.

One student, however, decided to come clean and admitted he had cheated. Rather than try to figure out exactly who had cheated from those not required to take the test in class, Rubineau allowed for a retake of the exam, a response which raised new issues.

“The retake just made matters worse,” said Jonathan ’11, a student in Rubineau’s Organizational Behavior class. “It caused stude

nts who didn’t cheat, but did badly, to lie so that they could get a second chance to improve their grade.”

Although these large-scale cheating scandals are often unheard of, they happen more and more now. According to ScienceDaily, 21 percent of students who believe cheating is wrong, have cheated before. However, what is surprising is that there has been a shift in exactly who is cheating.

Cheating, common among students incapable of achieving the desired grades, has also become prevalent among students who are perfectly capable of performing well in school. In some studies, researchers have found that up to 75 percent of high-achieving college students admit to cheating, a percentage that is on the rise. Is cheating becoming more acceptable among capable students?

One freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences believes that “cheating hurts your learning and therefore is the survival of the least moral.” Although there are students that may be morally opposed to cheating, there are just as many (if not more) who believe that cheating is accepted.

When asked about his views on cheating, Nick ’13, Arts and Sciences, adopted a Darwinian approach to cheating: “Cheating ... has no negative consequences on me or in the world. ... That doesn’t mean that I am cheating. It just means that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Cheating is the survival of the fittest. Because you got the best grade, you are the fittest in the class.”

Are Cornell students just looking to take the easy way out, or are there other important underlying factors at work?

As technology improves, students have access to practically limitless information. It’s the if-I-can-do-it-then-why-not-do-it mentality. And these days, new technology is centered on information. It’s hard to go a day without access to e-mail, camera-phones or Wikipedia. It is easy to find a summary of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man on the Internet, complete with character analyses and a list of the prevalent themes, motifs and symbols.

One student in Arts and Sciences said, “Anyone who believes that SparkNotes is cheating is wrong. I, and most students that I know, survived in high school because of SparkNotes. I mean, at least you’re reading.”

With ever-adapting technological advancements, the definition of cheating may have to change to accommodate the ease with which students can access information.

Since college admissions standards have gotten harsher in recent years, some students feel that there’s no other way to get ahead but to cheat. Cassandra, ILR ’12, stated, “Back when our parents went to school, it seemed as if anyone who wanted to get into a college, probably could. Standards have gotten so much harsher just because there are so many more people applying to college. There’s also not even a point in applying to some schools without a 4.0 and above a 2150 on your SAT.”

And it doesn’t stop once you get in. Most classes are based on just a few grades: two prelims, a final and a paper if you’re lucky. When your entire grade (and a substantial portion of your future) rests on just a few test scores, how can you afford not to get the best grade possible? Considering that most tests don’t really test your learning but rather your ability to perform, it seems as if colleges are just asking their students to cheat.

Besides blaming cheating on our increasingly competitive American culture, it is also important to examine whether the restrictions on cheating have become too rigid. Granted, there are some forms of cheating that some (if not all) students would consider to be outright wrong, plagiarism being one of them. And no one’s going to say that hoarding library books so no one else can write as good a term paper as you is acceptable (which is actually stated within the academic integrity code).

But is it really that bad for someone to save a few extra points on Moodle or Mastering Chemistry by asking the guy down the hall who’s really good at math or looking up the answers online?

As one student in ILR states, “If you think about it, no one is put in danger if an English major gets a little help on his or her required math class that they are taking to fulfill a distribution requirement.”

Similarly, plagiarizing one’s self is often looked down upon within the academic community. In other words, using passages from last year’s or even this year’s paper won’t fly with many teachers. But what is inherently wrong with using ideas and quotes from your own writing?

Katherine, Arts and Sciences ’12, said, “There is a fine line as to what actually counts as plagiarizing yourself. Everything one does can be considered self-plagiarism. Plus, if the arguments we have made in the past are still valid, why do we have to come up with new ones?”

Whether you believe that cheating is morally wrong despite the circumstances, or that given the rising standards within society cheating has become more acceptable, Cornell students should all ask ourselves one thing: “Do I cheat?” If your answer to this question is “No, I do not,” you may be both a liar and a cheater. But that’s okay; it’s not as if cheating makes you a bad person these days. Or does it?