Ethics and Honor
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I attended the University of Virginia and am proud to say I graduated from that fine university. Of the many memories I have, one that always sticks out and of which I've been proud, is that honor code. At UVA, we were required to pledge every paper and exam that we took with the following:
ON MY honor as a student, I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment or exam.
As I understood it, this was a pledge that you are turning in your work and only your own. We ask a similar question here of new authors to remind them that they are publishing what we believe to be their work and not something copied or plagiarized. I wrote this on many assignments and exams, and while it was a pain, it was also something I was proud to state and acknowledge my honor as well as take responsibility for my work, good or bad. Fortunately it was mostly good 🙂
This spring students at Duke's MBA school were caught cheating on an exam. An open-book, take home exam if you can believe it. I had quite a few of these at UVA, even a couple exams that were overnight exams, though only three hours. We were supposed to take the sealed exam, find a 3 hour block of time sometime in the next day or two, take the exam in that three hours, and then turn it in. During regular exams, we were even permitted to leave the room and take the exam outside, in a hallway, etc., as long as we turned it in on time.
I suspect people cheated at times and I'm not surprised that people are cheating at Duke. To me it's a sign of the times. And it's something that's extends to all aspects of business as well as academia.
We're too afraid to fail.
It's that simple. Too many people want to reap a reward, get the great job, make their numbers, get to the head of the class, whatever. But they don't want to chance a failure, so they're willing to cheat, fudge numbers, lie, deceive, etc. to win. Witness Enron, Worldcom, and more. Too often someone just can't admit that they didn't win.
If you cheat, you may get the reward, but you certainly didn't win. I could add some choice 4 letter descriptions of you, but you certainly aren't a winner.
Most of us won't be the best in what we do. That's be definition since the best is the one person at the top. But we can have success, we can have fun, learn from our mistakes, and we can be honorable in our efforts.
And we can have fun at any level of success.
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What's cheating in our world? We copy code from forums, articles, books, where ever. I leave the original credit in the comments.
Two things that our boss considers cheating: On Friday saying that you are complete on a task, working all weekend, and Monday it's still only 60% functional. Making code changes and deploying to the customer without a single test.
Some former co-workers have done that. "It compiled OK. Isn't that enough?"Disclosing data. Selling data. Sabotage. That's not cheating. It's criminal.
ATBCharles Kincaid
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I couldn't agree more. Learning from your mistakes makes you stronger and increases knowledge. I don't think it is a problem copying code from forums etc so long as you understand it and increase your own knowledge by doing so. Cheating in an exam is different, as you are (or should be) aware of what is required and so be prepared where as in the work place you are constantly faced with new challenges and new deadlines.
Ed Phillips -
ON MY honor as a student, I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment or exam
Surely this is a bit extreme. I think that for many subjects this is not practical given that students need to take opinions from multiple sources, including fellow students sometimes and then process these to produce a single piece of work. In some senses presented pieces are then original and in others they are not.
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While I agree with your point, I am not sure I agree that the reason is as simple as someone not willing to fail, which I think is really just a symptom of a more complex problem.
We live in a culture that does not even agree that there is right and wrong much less knowing the difference between right and wrong. Therein, I believe, lies the problem.
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To extrapolate on what Bob said. I think that we live in a society that also believes that the end justifies the means. For example - Getting a no interest loan that can (and for many does) cause you to go into bankruptcy. Taking performance enhancing drugs to win at sports. Cheating at tests to get great grades and get a succesful job later. These are all examples of compromise. The problem that comes out of that is that now the bar to success or even relative mediocrity is much higher. Witness the increase in cheating, the increase in use of drugs and the stratospheric rise in home prices. But, there is a price to pay. Cheaters are never able to truly perform to the levels that they advertise, those that use drugs eventually pay with their health or reputation and home owners become foreclosure participants. Our society doesn't discourage this type of behavior because it's not cool, popular or aggressive enough. We elect and idolize leaders and sports figures who model that behavior as well. What's the remedy?
Tom Walters
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Students cheat all the time, not just at Duke, but at a lot of universities, even in high schools, middle schools. They don't want to study but want to have a good grade. This happens since when I was a kid. Students use all kind of ways to check.
Steve, you already graduated from U of Virginia long time ago. It does not mean the students are not cheating at that university now!! Maybe not, it is just my guess!
My friend is a professor, she taught biology. She had three hundred students. One time she asked the students to write a paper. Two students had exactly the same paper. She rememebered so clearly even she had to correct three hundred papers because both papers were exactly the same (every single word).
In the real world, people cheat all the time. Look at the stock market, there is why now we have a new department called SOX.
This is human nature. People always want to succeed without doing anything. That's why so many people buying lottery and going to the casino. They hope to hit the jackpot.
One programmer in my company is so afraid to fail, every time he writes a program, he asks everyone including my boss to look it over. My boss is a bit annoying because he supposes to be a senior programmer, even a junior programmer would not ask the boss to check his program. I find out that programmer's skill is not even senior level because he is afraid to fail. If he keeps asking people to check his program, he would never learn.
I made a lot of mistakes in the past and that's how I learn to become a better programmer.
my 2 cents.
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Tom has touched on the greater problem. I have worked 29 years in the law enforcement arena and have had a front row seat to observe the general decline in the mores of our society. Call it cheating, compromise or poor judgement, the result is the same. Our major corporations are racked with scandels and "accounting errors". Our religeous leaders are in the news, enveloped in sexual intrigue and our government leaders are financially supported by special interests to the levels that make it virtually impossible to believe that there is no impropriety involved.
With these great "Role Models", is it so suprising to see our kids finding drugs as 'cool' and "getting help" on a test as normal? I admire the premise of the code of honor being written on every test and assignment. If, for no other reason, the process acts as positive reinforcement of an honorable attitude. There is an axiom in most success training that "if you speak it, it will be so". Simply stated this just means that if we speak kindness, truth and honor regularly then we tend to act accordingly.
This is my opinion, derived from honorable parents and hopefully imparted in my children successfully, thus giving them the ability to resist the trends.
Steve Hull
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When I was at Umass Amherst taking a freshman US History course, the same thing happened. The prof. always gave out take home exams; 3 questions one each exam. when we got the second exam back, he started writing the grade break down on the board. at theh end he wrote "6-F Cheat". He was pissed.
The way they got caught. He had 2 teaching assistant help with the grading. Each teaching assistant graded only one question, and the priof raded the third. After grading a few it becomes obvious to the TA's and the prof that the 6 students had literally wrote the same thing in each of their exam booklets.
Well, after that he no longer gave out take home exams, and I am sure that other professors no longer give take home exams for this reason.
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There are many people who are honorable and many who are not.
Having an oath may give pause to those on the fence - and on the balance is a good thing. For those who are not honorable, nothing short of fear of or actually getting caught will deter them. That's why we need intelligent rules and intelligent enforcement.
Recent poster children for dishonor are many - ENRON, Tyco, Abramoff, etc. Don't want to degenerate into a political debate here. The fallout for the corporate misdeeds was SOX - seemed like a good idea at the time (to some perhaps), but it's put an unnecessary burden on many honestly run businesses - hopefully it will be amended to discourage wrongdoing without unnecessary baggage.
What messages have been sent to our youth?
My mentor from my previous career in the nuclear power industry had the best advice: "Common sense and good judgement"
Life isn't black and white, we need to dialog and debate - with our children, with those starting their careers, perhaps even with our peers - "what if's" and "how would you handle..."
And we need to be good role models.
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Rather than address the core subject matter, given much consideration above, I began wondering about the 'four letter words' that would be applied to cheats. I have 3 kids, and my youngest is amoral, to put it politely.
Some of the 'four letter words' that i came up with: fool, jerk, scum, tool (?),
Some non-four letter words: cheat, fraud, idiot, thief, corrupt, coward (?),
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All good points, but I take issue with the parallel drawn between using code from a forum and plagiarism or cheating in an exam.
Using forum code is roughly the equivalent of asking a co-worker for help with an issue. it's a short-cut to use the experience and specific knowledge of another to find the solution to a specific problem. But the main distinction is that you are not being tasked with creating something that is exclusively your own!
In an exam, the examiner is trying to ascertain what you personally know right now. When you're developing software or writing a query, your boss wants you to produce something which works - and that's it. So if it works, and you understand how it works well enough to be aware of any potential problems which can come from the code, using stuff you got off a forum is not cheating.
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C8H10N4O2
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I agree with you Steve.
Mr. Jefferson's university has a fine code. It's a shame more students aren't exposed to something similar before arriving on its distinguished steps.
Integrity is not passe, it will never go out of style. And, similar to many things in life, it is digital in nature: once degradation begins the integrity is actually gone. My lovely bride, now six months pregnant with our third child, likes to say "I'm not 66% pregnant." (She does percentages... one of the many reasons I love that woman!)
I blogged about a good book on the topic a while back: The Speed of Trust. It's worth a read.
I've been surprised by people on this topic. Some think integrity isn't important or that you're being gauche by even bringing the topic to the forefront. I would challenge those folks to weigh their responses to ethical matters - no matter how small.
Some things in life, after the fact, require a time machine to fix.
:{> Andy
Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics
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Right. My point was that this is not cheating. Not in and of itself. What would be cheating is claiming that the work is yours when it is not.
ATBCharles Kincaid
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Unfortunately, I think more of us are guilty of cheating than we like to believe. How many of us have downloaded or copied software, a movie or music that we should have paid for? How many of us have overstated the value of donated clothes on our tax returns? How many of us have not been entirely honest when selling the company to potential or existing employees (the company finances are sound, and your job is safe) or selling ourselves to a potential employer? How many of us have hired a maid, nanny or lawn care person but didn't pay the employer's share of payroll taxes when we should have? How many of us have sneaked into another movie after the movie we paid for was over?
Somehow many of us are able to rationalize such actions, but truth be told, copying software, cheating on our taxes or sneaking into a movie is no different than shoplifting.
My point is that if we want to live in an ethical society, we should start by looking in the mirror.
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