Academic dishonesty in any shape or form is in all ways - morally, ethically or socially - wrong. Any justification notwithstanding, it's an act comparable to stealing grades away from every student around you in a class.
And standing by while cheating happens around you is just as insulting to your intelligence as it is for the rest of your peers.
Recently, MSU forum Web site allmsu.com has been shoved into the limelight because a few individuals among us chose to utilize it in the name of academic dishonesty. Allmsu.com focuses on a lot more than just cheating, and primarily is comprised of students, not administrators of the Web site. The rest of the site helps students trade and sell used textbooks, find a date for the weekend or rate and review professors, without worrying that the professor will become enraged.
These aspects of the Web site should be preserved. They aren't hurting, swindling or wronging anyone.
Nevertheless, it's tempting for students to plagiarize when the material is placed in their laps; an ethical dilemma to be sure. But, when their professors, advisers or deans lie about their identity to gain access to the student-only Web site to curb such dishonesty, two wrongs aren't making anyone right. Cheating and lying on both sides of the academic spectrum breeds an air of fear and mistrust among everyone - neither could ever be called a good idea.
Allmsu.com has become a scapegoat for the larger problem that is plagiarism. There are much, much larger problems and darker forces at work here - term papers bought and sold on the Internet as one example. Lazy professors who reuse their exams year after year is another. This comes pretty close to an open invitation to cheat, and is an age-old method that's existed since professors gave exams. Just as measures need to be taken to curtail advanced student cheating, lackadaisical professors and instructors need to be held accountable for being an accomplice. It happens.
The goodly people who run allmsu.com, though, are not guilt-free. Posts that lead to academic dishonesty deserve to be stricken. The site's terms of service also should be overhauled to give administrators the authority to remove postings suspected of dishonest content. The site needs to be used for its intent - an online community for MSU students.
Since the Web page is anonymous, the way people get caught on allmsu.com is by leaving their contact information along with the answers they've supplied. But it is also this anonymity that could allow the Webmasters to think of dropping the front page disclaimer that warns faculty and administrators not to log on.
It'd be naive to assume professors abide by the "for students only" tone of allmsu.com. It's not like professors haven't gotten any caustic or scathing Student Instructional Ratings System bubble-sheet responses before. Professors are strong enough to take criticism, even if it is a rant from way out in left field.
Any way it's perceived, academic dishonesty taints academia. Professors who remain aloof of their exams circulating among students, though, are just as guilty. One Web site need not be punished for an institutional flaw, but that doesn't mean we need to accept its current state.
