I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Moser article; however, I disagree with Mr. Moser’s title: “Economic Crisis Leads Students to Cheat” (Letter to the Editor – 9/18/03).

With that said, the reason why students’ cheat is because they don’t have any values/virtues. The economic crisis doesn’t help, but it is not the reason. The reason why (UMB) students cheat are: to gain an unfair advantage, to “beef” up their GPA’s, to throw off the curve, the student knows he/she can get away with it, the administration downplays the cheating incident(s), the faculty do not report cheating incident(s), the students do not voice their disgrace to the cheating students, et al.

According to Professor Garrison Wilkes (Biology Department), “there are three things you never do to accuse a student of cheating: 1) never accuse a minority of cheating, (2) never accuse an international student of cheating, and (3) never accuse a woman of cheating.” Professor Michael Shiaris, also of the Biology Department has called me “arrogant” in a related cheating incident that took place last winter. Arrogant? Because I believe in academic integrity, truth, and fairness.

I guess what the faculty and administration are really saying is: $$ is more important than integrity. Hey, doesn’t this play into Mr. Moser’s article in some evil sadistic kind of way?

How do students fight back and let the administration, faculty, and the constituents of UMB know that they are tired of the cheating at the University of Massachusetts Boston? If we can’t get the faculty or administration on board, how on earth do we get the students to voice their concerns (when no one is LISTENING)?

J. Stone Laraway