Cheating at Penn: an epidemic?

and Doree Shafrir Cheating has reached uncontrollable proportions at the nation's colleges and universities, especially among students at the highest academic levels. Or has it? While some studies claim that levels of cheating are at an all-time high, the number of students caught violating the University's Academic Integrity Code and punished by the Judicial Inquiry Office, or JIO, has remained relatively constant. And students themselves are nonchalant, saying that claims about the so-called epidemic are overblown. "I've heard of people cheating," said a College and Wharton senior, who asked not to be identified. "They're probably just copying homework. "I've never actually seen anyone cheat on a test," she added. Wharton and Engineering senior Anthony Ng said cheating is more prevalent in entry-level classes. Ng added that cheating is less likely in classes students take for their major or as an elective. "If there's only a few people in the class, there won't be any cheating," he said. According to these students and others like them, serious cheating is not an extensive problem at the University. And statistics back this claim -- from the fall of 1994 to the summer of '95, only 20 academic cases were brought to the Student Dispute Resolution Center of the JIO. Of these 20 cases, only four focused on cheating. Examples of cheating include passing exam books between students during an exam or having one student take an exam in another student's place. Three of the 20 cases were for fabrication, which involves "submitting contrived or altered information in any academic exercise," according to the Code of Academic Integrity.