Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
16
TSU hopes honor code will curtail cheating
Tennessee State University didn't need a survey to know that too many of its students were cheating --or that it was time to try steering them in another direction.
While other schools have hired outside experts to determine the percentage of students whose work wasn't their own, ''the number didn't matter,'' said English professor Samantha Morgan-Curtis, who's heading up an effort to write an honor code for TSU. ''We knew from our students that it's an issue.''
Morgan-Curtis and others hope an honor code will gradually change the culture at the Nashville school by encouraging students to take responsibility for doing the right thing. As things stand,
she said, many try to avoid getting caught doing the wrong thing.
TSU stud
ents aren't alone, of course. Experts say about half of all college students have cheated at one point or another. Some are either lazy or uninspired; some don't manage their time well enough and are stressed as a result; some think there's nothing wrong with working in teams; and some think they have to break the rules to avoid failing.
''It's better to cheat than to repeat,'' three TSU students said in separate, random interviews last week, invoking what they said was a common saying.
So an effort that started in the English department --where Morgan-Curtis and her colleagues decided to ''stop complaining and start doing something'' --has gone campuswide. Professors, administrators and students are working to put together a strong honor code and a structure for enforcing it either by next fall or, more likely, spring 20
06.
They say having students sign a pledge to be responsible for their own work will encourage them to be more proud and h
onest and make the university a more impressive place.
''Only good things can come from it,'' said Emily Orlando, an assistant professor of English who's leading a subcommittee reviewing about 100 honor codes at other schools. ''There's definitely an awareness that people cheat, and it devalues the degree. Students don't like it when people cheat off them. "â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�Å¡¦ We haven't met with any resistance from the student body.''
Some students said they weren't sure how much an honor code would help, however.
''You can sign something all day long, but it's not going to stop anybody from cheating,'' said Tavia Patton, a junior English major from Kansas City, Mo.
But Vickie Hayes, a senior child development major from Covington, Tenn., said she thinks a pledge ''would allev
iate some of that.''
''We need an honor code because a lot of cheating goes on here.''
Several people said it definitely wouldn't work to require students to report any cheating they
observe, as some honor codes do. Lipscomb University recently dropped that portion of its code, acknowledging that students rarely care to be known for turning in their peers.
''I don't think anybody will turn anybody else in,'' said Jonathan Sanders, a junior architectural engineering major at TSU. ''I'll let the teacher catch them on their own.''
In fact, professors say they're doing more and more of that. While the Internet has given students a treasure trove of term papers to buy, it's also made it easier to detect plagiarism. Morgan-Curtis and Orlando said they often show their classes how they can track down a suspicious phrase by plugging it either into Google or another search engine.
'&#
39;If you found it online, I can find it quicker,'' Morgan-Curtis said.
Orlando said it also helps simply to have a thorough discussion about academic integrity at the start of the semester.
''Nobody can claim I didn't lay down where I stood,'' she said.
DeShanee Mine
r, a junior psychology major, said professors are getting smarter in other ways, as well. Her astronomy professor requires students to put their cell phones on a table at the front of the room before starting a test, eliminating the possibility of using either text messaging or cameras to share answers.
Augustus Bankhead, TSU's vice president for academic affairs, said universities need to teach ethics and honesty along with math and literature. He said TSU has addressed the issue in some ways, but it may be time for a good tweaking to take something ''that's a little stale on the page'' and make it resonate for today's students.
Some students said e
veryone should already know what's right and wrong. LaToya Hull, a sophomore political science and math education major from Atlanta, said college is too late in life to be faking your way through.
''You're at the career level now,'' she said.
Dorian Brooks, a freshman from the South Bronx in New York, agreed.
''You need to b
e straight up in everything you do in life,'' she said.
Morgan-Curtis said popular culture makes it seem OK to cheat, sample and steal. Establishing an honor code, she said, will make a statement that ''we're concerned about this.''
''What will we tolerate?'' the rhetoric teacher asked rhetorically. ''What will we accept?''
Who has the code?
Most of the state's public colleges and universities don't have honor codes. George Malo, an assistant vice chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents system, said the system's policy gives e
ach professor the discretion to have students sign a pledge that they won't cheat.
If accused of cheating, students are entitled to the same due process rights as they would have under other kinds of misconduct allegations, Malo said.
The University of Tennessee requires students to sign an ''honor statement,'' which reads, in part, ''As a student of the University, I pledge that I will neither knowingly give nor receive any inappr
opriate assistance in academic work, thus affirming my own personal commitment to honor and integrity.''
UT does not require students to turn in other students who cheat, but ''each student, given the dictates of his/her own conscience, may choose to act on any violation of the Honor Statement,'' according to the university's student handbook.
*************
Tennessee State University Facts
<!--e
mo&:rotfl:-->http://newnation.vg/forums/style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rotfl.gif' /> :rotfl: :rotfl:
T.N.B.
TSU hopes honor code will curtail cheating
Tennessee State University didn't need a survey to know that too many of its students were cheating --or that it was time to try steering them in another direction.
While other schools have hired outside experts to determine the percentage of students whose work wasn't their own, ''the number didn't matter,'' said English professor Samantha Morgan-Curtis, who's heading up an effort to write an honor code for TSU. ''We knew from our students that it's an issue.''
Morgan-Curtis and others hope an honor code will gradually change the culture at the Nashville school by encouraging students to take responsibility for doing the right thing. As things stand,
she said, many try to avoid getting caught doing the wrong thing.
TSU stud
ents aren't alone, of course. Experts say about half of all college students have cheated at one point or another. Some are either lazy or uninspired; some don't manage their time well enough and are stressed as a result; some think there's nothing wrong with working in teams; and some think they have to break the rules to avoid failing.
''It's better to cheat than to repeat,'' three TSU students said in separate, random interviews last week, invoking what they said was a common saying.
So an effort that started in the English department --where Morgan-Curtis and her colleagues decided to ''stop complaining and start doing something'' --has gone campuswide. Professors, administrators and students are working to put together a strong honor code and a structure for enforcing it either by next fall or, more likely, spring 20
06.
They say having students sign a pledge to be responsible for their own work will encourage them to be more proud and h
onest and make the university a more impressive place.
''Only good things can come from it,'' said Emily Orlando, an assistant professor of English who's leading a subcommittee reviewing about 100 honor codes at other schools. ''There's definitely an awareness that people cheat, and it devalues the degree. Students don't like it when people cheat off them. "â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�Å¡¦ We haven't met with any resistance from the student body.''
Some students said they weren't sure how much an honor code would help, however.
''You can sign something all day long, but it's not going to stop anybody from cheating,'' said Tavia Patton, a junior English major from Kansas City, Mo.
But Vickie Hayes, a senior child development major from Covington, Tenn., said she thinks a pledge ''would allev
iate some of that.''
''We need an honor code because a lot of cheating goes on here.''
Several people said it definitely wouldn't work to require students to report any cheating they
observe, as some honor codes do. Lipscomb University recently dropped that portion of its code, acknowledging that students rarely care to be known for turning in their peers.
''I don't think anybody will turn anybody else in,'' said Jonathan Sanders, a junior architectural engineering major at TSU. ''I'll let the teacher catch them on their own.''
In fact, professors say they're doing more and more of that. While the Internet has given students a treasure trove of term papers to buy, it's also made it easier to detect plagiarism. Morgan-Curtis and Orlando said they often show their classes how they can track down a suspicious phrase by plugging it either into Google or another search engine.
'&#
39;If you found it online, I can find it quicker,'' Morgan-Curtis said.
Orlando said it also helps simply to have a thorough discussion about academic integrity at the start of the semester.
''Nobody can claim I didn't lay down where I stood,'' she said.
DeShanee Mine
r, a junior psychology major, said professors are getting smarter in other ways, as well. Her astronomy professor requires students to put their cell phones on a table at the front of the room before starting a test, eliminating the possibility of using either text messaging or cameras to share answers.
Augustus Bankhead, TSU's vice president for academic affairs, said universities need to teach ethics and honesty along with math and literature. He said TSU has addressed the issue in some ways, but it may be time for a good tweaking to take something ''that's a little stale on the page'' and make it resonate for today's students.
Some students said e
veryone should already know what's right and wrong. LaToya Hull, a sophomore political science and math education major from Atlanta, said college is too late in life to be faking your way through.
''You're at the career level now,'' she said.
Dorian Brooks, a freshman from the South Bronx in New York, agreed.
''You need to b
e straight up in everything you do in life,'' she said.
Morgan-Curtis said popular culture makes it seem OK to cheat, sample and steal. Establishing an honor code, she said, will make a statement that ''we're concerned about this.''
''What will we tolerate?'' the rhetoric teacher asked rhetorically. ''What will we accept?''
Who has the code?
Most of the state's public colleges and universities don't have honor codes. George Malo, an assistant vice chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents system, said the system's policy gives e
ach professor the discretion to have students sign a pledge that they won't cheat.
If accused of cheating, students are entitled to the same due process rights as they would have under other kinds of misconduct allegations, Malo said.
The University of Tennessee requires students to sign an ''honor statement,'' which reads, in part, ''As a student of the University, I pledge that I will neither knowingly give nor receive any inappr
opriate assistance in academic work, thus affirming my own personal commitment to honor and integrity.''
UT does not require students to turn in other students who cheat, but ''each student, given the dictates of his/her own conscience, may choose to act on any violation of the Honor Statement,'' according to the university's student handbook.
*************
Tennessee State University Facts
<!--e
mo&:rotfl:-->http://newnation.vg/forums/style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rotfl.gif' /> :rotfl: :rotfl:
T.N.B.