Cheaters never prosper, so think again

by Tim Tevault
Managing Editor

Eighty percent of college students have admitted to cheating at least once in their college careers, according to a survey from Duke University.

Is it me or is this figure astronomically high? In an ideal world, it would be at zero, but sadly, in today's society, many students cheat to get ahead.

As an honest student, who has never plagiarized before, I can honestly say that the results of these studies really tick me off. While the students are mostly to blame, some of that blame also needs to fall in the hands of society.

To get ahead in today's world, you usually have to be aggressive and do whatever it takes to get that flashy job and high salary. It's all about the money and not about being moral or ethical. Basically, it's about what you have and not the path you took to get there.

After all, you always hear someone ask a successful graduate "So where do you work now?" or "How much are you making?" You never hear "What did you learn during your college career?"

It's natural human nature; people look up to others who have a nicer title affiliated with their name.

So doesn't the same apply in college? I mean, it's all about the good grade. If you don't get the good grade, there goes your G.P.A., which will throw off your chances of getting into a good graduate school.

The same metaphor can be used for honors students. Don't people in general look up to or praise students with "honors" placed next to their name? Naturally students who achieve more than others deserve extra recognition, but because they are honors does not mean they should be exempt from suspicion of plagiarism and/or cheating.

While doing some research on my plagiarism article last week, I read that a study conducted by Turnitin.com in 2000 found that 30 percent of a large sampling of Berkeley students were caught directly plagiarizing off the Internet.

Last time I checked, Berkeley is a tough school to get into. That being said, it just makes you wonder what they did in order to get into the school.

Unfortunately, this kind of behavior places the cheaters and immoral students a step ahead of the honest students who actually work for their grades.

This also shows the amount of restraint students have when presented with temptation. The invention of the internet really left professors in their own academic dust, allowing students to blatantly plagiarize anything they wished, without any reasonable way for professors to double-check up them. However, with the recent invention of Turnitin.com, the site now used at ULV as a means to catch online plagiarism, professors now have a better chance of catching cheaters now more than ever.

During my college career, especially this semester, I have learned that taking short-cuts do not necessarily get you where you need to be any faster than it would take doing things the right way.

Plagiarizing is not an exception. It is a major offense at any college campus and can often result in being expelled from the university. So why do it? It takes an extra five minutes to read, rewrite and give credit to someone else's work. But, as is the case with everything nowadays, I guess it's all about convenience.

However, why would someone still want to plagiarize at a school where tuition is as high as it is? If you -- or your parents, the government, whoever -- is willing to pay $18,000 for an education, wouldn't it make sense to take full advantage of it?

Tim Tevault, a sophomore journalism major, is managing editor of the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at zerotearx@aol.com.