This commentary paper examines the issue of contract cheating in higher education, drawing on research and current debate in the field of academic integrity. Media coverage of this issue has reflected significant concerns in the field about students' use of custom academic writing services, along with sector and national calls for action that…

The authors respond to Goodwin's (2014) "Threat Assessment: Are We Using the Wrong Nets?" and use that article as a springboard to discuss various aspects of the threat assessment and management process. We find that Goodwin misses critical elements of the threat assessment and management process, conflates the process with two types of…

Translating ethics knowledge into ethical behavior is much harder than it appears, writes Sternberg. In this article, he outlines an eight-step process that individuals must go through to act in an ethical way--for example, recognizing that there is an event to which to react, taking personal responsibility for generating an ethical solution to…

Several years ago, the author taught a course called First-Year experience. A student named Sean mentioned that he played "water pong." Sean, a high-achieving student who was also a member of the lacrosse team, explained that water pong was a game with the rules of beer pong, using water rather than beer. Sean volunteered an explanation of his…

Is there an ethical giftedness, and if so, what does it look like? In this article, I consider why ethical behavior is much harder to come by than one would expect. Ethically gifted individuals are able to complete a series of eight steps to action, the failure of any one of which may result in a person, even one who is ethically well trained, to…

America is in the midst of one of the worst economic environments since the Great Depression, and the fallout from dishonest individuals from Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue has been breathtaking. As a graduate student, the author has observed that many people easily begin rationalizing dishonest behavior early in their careers. He advocates…

In this article, the author discusses students' disrespectful behavior towards their teachers. However, his larger concern is not just that students behave disrespectfully toward their professors. It is that they are increasingly disrespectful to one another, to the point that a serious student has more trouble coping with the behavior of his or…

This article reviewed the case of indecent dressing among the youth of today especially on the universities campuses, which has forced the authorities of those institutions to enact dress codes to stem the tide and restore high moral standards, integrity and decency. Whether this bid was successful or not was another thing which was a function of…

Every professor encounters difficult students. Some students are simply uninterested, while others are more troublesome. The aggressive passive-aggressive student, the interrupter, the hijacker, the shy student--most faculty members are familiar with them all. In this article, the author offers a few tips on how faculty members should approach…

This article argues that colleges should not dismiss troubled students first and ask questions later. There are better ways to prevent campus violence than trying to predict students' future behavior, including mental-health support and thoughtful, responsible risk assessment. While no panacea exists, there are helpful, proven strategies: (1)…

In this article, the author describes how he was baffled with one of his students' blatant display of nonconforming attitude. Keenan is a student most loathed by his classmates. He didn't give a damn if the other students liked him. He scratched his crotch as he walked, and his unshampooed hair resembled a ragged carpet swatch. When he sneezed…

In this humorous essay, the author responds to a critique of one of his articles found on a web site that sells term papers. He points out the irony of finding an analysis of an article covering college honor systems on a site that helps students plagiarize, and offers his own critique of the paper.

In their efforts to manage the college environment, many higher-education institutions have deployed complex systems of student discipline--often in the form of legalistic codes of conduct. Paradoxically, says the author, major challenges involving students on campuses appear to be getting worse: high-risk alcohol/drug use persists; student…

Just a few days before the shootings at Virginia Tech, officials at the University of Delaware received a complaint from the family of a female undergraduate student. The family said that Maciej Murakowski, a 19-year-old student who lived in the same residence hall as their daughter, had posted material on his Web site that made the woman fearful…

In this article, the author discusses why it is imperative that students understand the importance of academic integrity. The author emphasizes that students should maintain their integrity because the reliability of their work and what they learn depends on it. He also shares the new policy adopted by his university in dealing with violations of…