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Cheating: Give credit where credit is due?
This past week it seems like all I’ve been hearing about is cheating. I see it every time I start a new homework assignment in Math 143, my English 102 teacher has been drilling my class with it and its consequences (mostly because a girl typed 2003 for the date on our last paper instead of 2008. I found it rather funny and ironic), and I read a story about it in The Argonaut, to name a few.
But should students be punished to the extent of expulsion for it? Is the death penalty a legitimate punishment for a criminal? Po-ta-to/po-tau-to if you ask me. I have a professor (who I’m pretty sure is the smartest and most down to earth person I know) who says that there is only one reason, whether students know it or not, why people go to college. What is it you ask? To learn how to manipulate the system. You learn how to manipulate the system so that it works in your favor. To me, that means you use your mind and newly developed skills to do what it takes to put things in your favor. So when I read about a kid who creates a Facebook group to study and to learn new ways to solve problems, I don’t get mad at him for cheating; I salute him and kick myself for not coming up with the idea...even if it’s considered cheating.
I understand that cheating is the only unforgivable sin in academia, but it’s academia that is teaching us to use our minds in different, more creative ways. Don’t blame us; it’s your own fault. In a globalized world like today where competition is off of the Richter scale, college students go through more stress than the Golden Gate Bridge during rush hour. The thought that you’ll fail in life if you don’t do well in college and get your degree drives us to do anything and everything we can to pass and perhaps even squeak by.
I’m not saying that all college students are cheaters. And I’m definitely not saying that I am one either. But if a student comes up with some great idea that doesn’t appear in the student manual under cheating, he or she shouldn’t be put up for expulsion. He or she should be put up for an award. Bottom line, cheating is wrong. But to expel a student for pooling their resources and doing something others haven’t thought of isn’t right either.
Nicholas Stallings
freshman, family and consumer science
Tea time
Attending a university is more than going to class each day and making new friends. It is about expanding our current world and becoming knowledgeable and involved with the world around us. The University of Idaho and Vandal Entertainment do a great job of bringing lecturers and events to campus. I challenge all of the students to voluntarily attend one of these and learn from the opportunity presented to us.
On Thursday April 3, humanitarian Greg Mortenson and author of his story, David Oliver Relin, will share Mortenson’s un planned journeys in Afghanistan. He began his expedition as a climber on K2 Mountain, the second largest mountain in the world. His world changed when the climb went bad and he became a Taliban prisoner and then transformed to successfully bringing education and hope in remote villages of central Asia.
Mortenson’s book, “Three Cups of Tea,” is a nine-month New York Times best seller. The money raised from his book sales will go toward building schools for women in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Education is something women have never had.
It costs $177 million each day spent for the war and Mortenson has chosen to fight a separate war taking place in the same parts of the world but it costs just $12,000 to build a school and $50,000 to maintain a school for five years.
It is an unusual occasion and honor that the University of Idaho can host both these men together for a storytelling. Mortenson and Relin will share their stories and experiences with slide shows and question and answer sessions.
Three different show times are scheduled. Tickets will be free but have to be picked up in advance at a first come, first serve basis. Tickets must be reserved at the UI bookstore Web site.
“Three Cups of Tea” will be a storytelling not worth missing and the chance to be a part of a separate battle across the world.
Kayla Dahmen
ASUI Senator
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