by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
Bryan Vigil cheated on an exam a few semesters ago.
He didn't get caught, but he regrets it.
"I took my chances and trusted the student's answer over a guess," he said. "I knew that the student in front of me could have just guessed, but I took that chance - and also the chance of getting kicked out of class. Now that I think about it, it was a stupid choice."
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In the spring semester of 2005, professors reported 13 cases of cheating to Robert Burford, judicial affairs specialist for the Dean of Students Office, he said.
Of those, only four resulted in a student getting punished. The rest were kept on record in case the student cheated again, he said.
Last semester, there were five reported cases of cheating. He acted on three of those, he said.
Charles Paine, director of composition for the English department, said cheating is a problem at UNM, but not a major one.
He handles cases of plagiarism in freshmen English classes.
"It's always been a problem, and it's still a problem," he said. "But I don't think we're seeing anything like an epidemic. There may be some increases in students trying to get away with things, but it's not like we're seeing more than we've ever seen before."
On most campuses across the country, about 70 percent of students admit to some cheating, according to statistics from the Center for Academic Integrity. Almost one-quarter admitted to serious test cheating in the past year, according to the statistics.
There may be many more cases of cheating that professors choose to handle on their own instead of reporting them to the dean's office, Burford said.
Only 44 percent of national faculty who knew about cheating in their classes reported it to campus authorities, according to the center.
The University can take disciplinary action, including expulsion, against any student it finds guilty of academic dishonesty, according to the UNM Student Code of Conduct.
Academic dishonesty includes cheating on quizzes, tests and plagiarism.
Vicky Kauffman, coordinator for Math 121, said when students are caught cheating, she and the teacher often advise them to simply drop the class.
The possibility of being expelled is enough to keep most students from cheating, student Deidre Vigil said.
"I've never come into contact with anyone who cheats, and even if I were tempted I would be afraid to get caught," she said. "The penalties are pretty harsh, and I think that's a good thing."
It is important to keep cheating in check, because if there are too many cheaters, a degree from UNM will mean less, she said.
"I think it affects the integrity of the institution as a whole," she said. "If people are cheating and getting away with it, the work of people who are honest won't mean as much."
The most common type of cheating at UNM is plagiarizing papers off the Internet, Burford said.
Paine agreed, but said the Internet also makes it easy to catch plagiarizers. A professor who suspects plagiarism can easily search for similar material on the Internet, he said.
"The Internet makes it easier to do, but actually harder to get away with," he said. "If you found something on the Internet, it's there for the professor to find too."
Students may also be encouraged to plagiarize by society, he said.
"The whole culture is changing," he said. "They know it's illegal, for instance, to download songs, but we do it. So copying from the Internet may be something that's becoming part of our culture."
