To cheat or not to cheat? Is it a question that needs to be asked? Is cheating no longer considered inappropriate? Is it tacitly encouraged?

Tough questions? Some say yes. There was a time when cheating was once considered a serious academic offense. Those students that were caught cheating faced grave consequences from the powers-that-be. Supposedly, that is still the case today.

Some students cheat often. After all, if they can get away with it, why not? But that’s not the real dilemma.

The fact that student can be caught cheating and not face the repercussions that were once doled out routinely by academic authority is, in short, perplexing.

A disturbing number of UMass Boston students have approached members of The Mass Media and have claimed, although in casual conversation, that cheating and unfair academic practices go on in the classroom. The voices of these students were filled with frustration and anger over the apparent apathy of the professors of these classes.

An article that appears in this issue of The Mass Media documents an incident that found one student, John “Stone” Laraway on the outs with his fellow classmates when he voiced his concerns about the assignments on the syllabus. What resulted was an assault by a classmate, a police report, and environment where the student was given a quiz in the professor’s office to avoid further confrontations.

The most disheartening development of the whole affair is the lack of action on the part of the administration in dealing with the issue. Granted that this was an isolated incident, but the underlying problems of the administering of on-line quizzes and homework assignments, let alone final exams, loom large.

Technology has greatly aided the burgeoning number of adults who receive instruction through the medium of the Internet. However, the downfalls inherent in this newly developed tool of pedagogy may overwhelm the long-term benefits students receive from such resources.

Yet the issues of this one student run deeper than that. Apparently a two-week break was scheduled to take place – a two-week hiatus in a course that was designed to be completed in six weeks. This is definitely a new approach for 21st century pedagogy. Makes sense, doesn’t it. Even if one takes into the account the significant number of students, many who have families and full time jobs, who have a tight schedule, can the material really be administered, absorbed, and then processed in a meaningful way, whether in the classroom or outside of it. Apparently many think so. Laraway voiced his concerned and was assaulted for it.

Although many professors at UMass Boston and other institutions of higher education want students to collaborate on projects and other assignments, the monitoring the completion of these assignments by unethical practices is impossible. Unsupervised and unafraid, students will learn to incorporate these same practices into habits – inside and outside the classroom.

An unpleasant chain reaction then develops, grades rise, and the value of the degree diminishes. To let this new hybrid of grade inflation go unchecked is no less dishonorable than professors who grade assignments and exams easily. We can wag our fingers at those institutions—like the one across the Charles River—that have been accused of traditional grade inflation but in the end, we would not be in any better standing than them.