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My school recently had to change the honor code because there was so much cheating but the administration and student senate don't like bringing that up. The ho

My school recently had to change the honor code because there was so much cheating but the administration and student senate don't like bringing that up. The honor code for 100 years previously had been weaker, to the point of not having proctors for exams. The student senate opposed changes to the honor code. There's been an exponential increase in honor code violations and yet less enforcement because, imo, the school can't afford to suspend so many people. I think what's happening is kind of dark. Universities might be slowly returning to what they were a long time ago which is a place of learning. In recent times they have been selling prestige to credentialists. It turns out that those people don't really need to take the classes especially with the internet and AI now being resources. So the universities are stuck between earning more revenue yet having decreasing academic integrity versus having lower revenue and catering to a smaller group of people. The honor code itself doesn't really seem to change how people behave. Anecdotally, I hear that cheating increases every year from whispers of CS profs and TAs. I feel like if you are going to use AI to cheat, as one example, why not skip the university altogether? I think the lack of academic integrity will lead to that in some form or another.

neilv 1y ago
Sorry to hear about the cheating. Do you know, as cheating increased, was there peer pushback against the cheaters, such as overt disapproval that lowers the cheater's social status? Or, were cheaters secretive from fellow students, so mostly only profs and TAs could tell? If cheaters were secretive from fellow students, was it out of fear of hurting their peer social status, or fear of being ratted out and facing school disciplinary action?
- onetimeusename 1y ago
  I don't know anyone caught personally but profs would make announcements about how they found a lot of GPT answers or plagiarism. I've heard profs say they find a lot of cheating but also students are given so many warnings and opportunities to fix it. You can choose to take a 0 on an assignment if you report yourself by the end of the quarter which probably masks it. Usually that doesn't even hurt your grade when 75% is exams. I don't know if it's true but the school bought software (unless that was a made up threat) to find plagiarism that includes sources like code from stackoverflow. The school seems to keep it private who is caught but I also don't think anyone is punished harshly. Despite all of this I am not aware of anyone being suspended or expelled. I assume there were people who would cheat on actual exams so exams now have proctors and there are assigned seats. The school wouldn't have insisted on proctors being in the honor code without a reason. I think the fear of getting caught/ratted out is more salient. Use of GPT is so pervasive, just in general, that there's probably more cheating than there is not. Imagine people who rely on GPT for tasks like what they should eat suddenly not using it for hw. I think most just want their A- and their degree and to move on.
Suppafly 1y ago
>I feel like if you are going to use AI to cheat, as one example, why not skip the university altogether? That same reason people used other methods to cheat in the past, a degree is valuable to have in the job market. I honestly doubt cheating is even increasing, they are just lazier about it now.
- onetimeusename 1y ago
  I think the part about the job market is what's interesting. If employers know most of the grads with degrees just use AI at their university, they might not value the degree as much (maybe). If the employer wanted the degree, that might mean anyone who can use AI can do the job and that might lower barriers to entry. Also, some people might just try to bypass needing the degree altogether because of the cost so universities might have to lower tuition to continue to bring students in. The AI makes it more clear the university is just offering a piece of paper. But like I was saying if you actually enjoyed the subject and wanted to learn that would be a different group of people from the ones who just want a degree and rectifying those two groups at the same place would be hard.
  - Suppafly 1y ago
    >But like I was saying if you actually enjoyed the subject and wanted to learn that would be a different group of people from the ones who just want a degree and rectifying those two groups at the same place would be hard. Agreed, but mostly people that just want to learn already aren't going to college for that.

neilv 1y ago

Sorry to hear about the cheating. Do you know, as cheating increased, was there peer pushback against the cheaters, such as overt disapproval that lowers the cheater's social status? Or, were cheaters secretive from fellow students, so mostly only profs and TAs could tell? If cheaters were secretive from fellow students, was it out of fear of hurting their peer social status, or fear of being ratted out and facing school disciplinary action?

onetimeusename 1y ago
I don't know anyone caught personally but profs would make announcements about how they found a lot of GPT answers or plagiarism. I've heard profs say they find a lot of cheating but also students are given so many warnings and opportunities to fix it. You can choose to take a 0 on an assignment if you report yourself by the end of the quarter which probably masks it. Usually that doesn't even hurt your grade when 75% is exams. I don't know if it's true but the school bought software (unless that was a made up threat) to find plagiarism that includes sources like code from stackoverflow. The school seems to keep it private who is caught but I also don't think anyone is punished harshly. Despite all of this I am not aware of anyone being suspended or expelled. I assume there were people who would cheat on actual exams so exams now have proctors and there are assigned seats. The school wouldn't have insisted on proctors being in the honor code without a reason. I think the fear of getting caught/ratted out is more salient. Use of GPT is so pervasive, just in general, that there's probably more cheating than there is not. Imagine people who rely on GPT for tasks like what they should eat suddenly not using it for hw. I think most just want their A- and their degree and to move on.

Suppafly 1y ago

>I feel like if you are going to use AI to cheat, as one example, why not skip the university altogether? That same reason people used other methods to cheat in the past, a degree is valuable to have in the job market. I honestly doubt cheating is even increasing, they are just lazier about it now.

onetimeusename 1y ago
I think the part about the job market is what's interesting. If employers know most of the grads with degrees just use AI at their university, they might not value the degree as much (maybe). If the employer wanted the degree, that might mean anyone who can use AI can do the job and that might lower barriers to entry. Also, some people might just try to bypass needing the degree altogether because of the cost so universities might have to lower tuition to continue to bring students in. The AI makes it more clear the university is just offering a piece of paper. But like I was saying if you actually enjoyed the subject and wanted to learn that would be a different group of people from the ones who just want a degree and rectifying those two groups at the same place would be hard.
- Suppafly 1y ago
  >But like I was saying if you actually enjoyed the subject and wanted to learn that would be a different group of people from the ones who just want a degree and rectifying those two groups at the same place would be hard. Agreed, but mostly people that just want to learn already aren't going to college for that.