Fact Box

146 cases of admitted or determined academic misconduct for this year

-50 freshmen

-41 sophomores

-21 juniors

-26 seniors

-8 graduate students

According to the Center for Academic Honesty, 85 percent of college students will cheat at some point in their college careers.

Although this includes everything from a crib sheet to formulas written on the palm of a student’s hand, the university regards all events as a serious matter, said Heather Webb, director of judicial affairs.

Last year there were 146 cases of academic misconduct reported to the office. Webb said many cases are not reported to her office and “when you cheat, you’re trying not to get caught.”

Also, many of these cases are resolved by professors instead of sending the student to judicial affairs.

“It is better to warn a student about the dangers than ruin their whole lives,” said Linda Ghent, economics professor. She has seen three cases of dishonesty since 2000, which she dealt with on her own.

Most cases reported to judicial affairs become part of the student’s conduct report and are destroyed after six years.

The judicial affairs office staff would prefer to see all cases of cheating reported. This is in part to prevent students cheating in multiple classes. It is also Eastern’s policy that all events must be reported, although Webb acknowledged that professors have a large amount of freedom when dealing with academic dishonesty.

When a student is reported to the office, the staff decides on a punishment, or sanction appropriate to the offense.

The most common sanction is the Multi-Media Integrity Teaching Tool, which was created by Ball State. It is a program installed on the computers in Booth Library and normally takes from four to six hours to complete. There is a wide range of other sanctions available, ranging from no credit for an assignment or test, failure of a course or even expulsion from the university.

Although no students were expelled from the university last year, one was suspended from school for two years and three were dropped from their programs.

Suspension means that the student is not allowed to return to Eastern for the duration of their suspension. At the end of that time, the student must contact Dan Nadler, the vice president for student affairs, to appeal for readmittance. Nadler may decide to allow the student to return or not.

The office does not only serve as a punitive group. It also serves as a resource about academic dishonesty, often answering questions from students, parents and educators. It also helps interpret the Student Conduct Code, which can be difficult to understand, Webb said.

The 146 cases last year are the most seen in the last ten years. The previous high point was in the 2002-03 academic year, where there were 123 cases. This high number stems from two sources: technology and a number of students cheating in an intro to business class, Webb said.

“In addition to making our lives easier, (technology) presents us with a huge temptation,” Webb said.

Personal data assistants (PDAs), cell phones and the Internet all make cheating more effective than blue ink on a student’s palm.

“Technology has made it a lot easier for students to get to a place where plagiarism is possible,” said Robyn Paige, judicial adviser.