According to Dean of Students Ben Lieber, the most important issue that this survey revealed is that 31 students admitted to having cheated, and they all reported that they had not been caught. Forty-eight percent of respondants admitted to having cheated more than once.
"The interesting question is how they got away with it," said Lieber.
One hundred sixty-eight students reported being aware of other students' acts of cheating. One hundred eight were aware of acts of plagiarism by other students.
Only four of the students reported the offense to a faculty member. Ninety-five percent of the students who were aware of these acts failed to report them. "It is really disconcerting that a large number of students have seen those things but have not reported them," Lieber said.
President Anthony Marx also expressed concern about cheating. "I think it is very troubling that cheating is on the rise," Marx said. "That says something about our society and what messages we have sent to our students about what is acceptable and what pressures they feel under and a confusion perhaps about what is or isn't cheating."
Fifty-seven percent of respondents to a parallel faculty survey consider cheating and plagiarism significant problems. Fourteen percent of faculty members who responded believe that cheating is not a problem. Seventeen percent of the respondents are undecided on the issue. Forty-nine percent of the faculty who responded had discovered student acts of cheating or plagiarism during the past four years. Thirty-seven percent of those have caught more than three students.
"The experience I had with cheating was in my introduction to psychology class. The final exam was on the Tuesday of finals week, and I think one factor in leading to the cheating was that students simply didn't feel they had enough time to study," said Assistant Professor of Psychology Catherine Sanderson. "The students who cheated (and there were close to 10) were all first-year students, and I think didn't allocate studying time well. On the whole they were good students, in some cases students who were probably going to get an A in the class, and I believe they simply panicked at the time of the exam," she said.
Twenty-two faculty members said they have reported incidents to the dean of students, and twenty-four said they have handled an incident internally. Ten percent of respondents failed to punish acts of cheating or plagiarism. "I have been surprised at the magnitude of [plagiarism]," said Assistant Professor of Psychology Sarah Turgeon. Turgeon participated in the survey and has reported cheating to the dean of students office.
Although the dean of students office encourages faculty members to fail students caught for the course, only 23 percent reported doing so. "Sometimes faculty are even surprised at the suggestion that what they ought to be doing is failing a student in the course," said Lieber.
For the past few years, cheating has been an increasing concern. According to Lieber, there were 10 cases of cheating reported in 2001 compared to 35 cases reported in 2002. Already this year there have been reports of cheating. "I believe professors have a responsibility to [emphasize] the dangers of cheating and their expectations it will not occur," said Sanderson. "After my experience [with cheating] ... I discuss cheating the first day of each class I teach, and I note that I will try to find out if cheating has occurred, try to prevent cheating from occurring, and report all cheating that occurs, so that if doing honest work is not a student's 'academic style,' they should take a different class."
Sanderson said she believes her efforts decrease students' willingness to cheat. "At the start of each exam, I ask who is feeling stressed, and then observe that any stress they are feeling right now is nothing compared to the stress of appearing before the disciplinary committee due to cheating ... Of course I can't say without a doubt that cheating doesn't occur in my classes, but I do believe that my highlighting the stupidity and consequences of cheating decreases students' willingness to rely on this 'strategy,'" she said.
Since students are aware of what constitutes cheating, the College Council has discussed the imposition of an honor code to increase the number of students who report the academic dishonesty of which they are aware.
"I think that an honor code would be a very useful tool for our school to use against the rise of cheating and plagiarism on campus," said Association of Amherst Students President Ryan Park '05, a member of the College Council. "I think that making an appeal to the students' sense of integrity by instituting an honor code could have an extremely beneficial effect on the atmosphere of academic integrity on campus." Park founded an ad hoc honor code committee.
One hundred thirty-one students responded that they support the College Council's suggestion of the "institution of a formal honor code, which would require students to report all instances of academic dishonesty of which they become aware, under penalty of disciplinary action if they fail to do so."
In the survey, the College Council questioned whether the faculty would "prefer that the Code of Conduct be changed so that an automatic penalty of failure in the course be imposed in any instance of cheating or plagiarism, thus eliminating the instructor's discretion." Seventy-two percent of faculty respondents expressed their desire to maintain their discretion.
Still, 17 faculty respondents supported the proposed change. "The problem with faculty handling such matters individually, of course, is that it risks creating the impression among the students that such matters are dealt with arbitrarily," said Professor of French Paul Rockwell, a member of the College Council. "From a student perspective, I would think that it would seem unjust to have the same infraction disciplined in different ways by different professors. On the other hand, there is much to be said in favor of giving faculty a certain amount of discretion in dealing with the details of the individual cases," he said.
Lieber agreed that there is too much variability in allowing for faculty discretion. "Another question for the College Council is how to go about encouraging more uniformity without necessarily imposing that [automatic failure] on faculty," said Lieber. One hundred twenty-two students want automatic failure to be the punishment for academic dishonesty.
The College Council plans to sponsor a meeting for faculty and a meeting for students to discuss the results of the survey.
"I am looking forward to hearing their thoughts and views and then I will be engaging in a discussion about that, but I feel it is appropriate to start with the College Council," said Marx.