Everyone Else is Doing it So it is Okay - Wrong

I was not quite sure what I was going to write about tonight until I started reading the news online. That is where I saw a story about a college professor from the University of Central Florida (UCF) who is dropping the hammer on some two hundred students he suspects of cheating.

Apparently, some less scrupulous students in the UCF Business School got a hold of the mid-term exam answers.  They then used those answers to get good grades on the test. Unfortunately for them, their professor, Richard Quinn, was able to find out exactly who cheated on the test. Professor Quinn used statistics to figure out exactly who cheated on the exam. Of the 600 students in the course, nearly 200 of the students cheated. Those 200 students, mostly seniors, were given an ultimatum to confess and go through an ethics seminar or risk expulsion. At the time the story aired, some 75% of the students had confessed. I hope those that do not come forward are severely punished. You may think I am being harsh, but at 21 or 22, you know better, and you should pay the price for cheating.

The cheating is not what disturbed me most about the story though. People cheat all the time, and although that does disturb me, the apathy I saw from one UCF student interviewed enraged me. He basically said that it was okay that those students cheated on the test because everybody cheats in school and in life. Sorry pal, that is not true for me.

It is sad that this kid is learning about cheating in college, and I learned about integrity. I spent a year and half in R.O.T.C (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) in college. I loved it. I nearly joined the military because of it, but that is a story for another time. Somewhere during that time, I learned a creed and part of the creed read, "Integrity is my touchstone." That statement has never left me.

I am not saying that I'm better than that kid that ABC interviewed, because I do not think I am better than anyone else. But come on, to say it is okay to cheat because everyone else does is asinine. What is wrong some with people? That kind of group mentality thinking is what destroys societies. I am not going to go all Doomsday on you and tell you how I think the moral fabric of our society is wasting away. But, maybe the next time you see somebody doing something wrong and you have the slightest inclination to do what they are doing because they are doing it, stop and say to yourself - "Integrity is my touchstone." I have a feeling you will change your mind.

Author's Note: You can view the entire story here.