2008 Woodie Awards
It Can Happen Here, Too: Academic Misconduct
"Sadly, we are not as different as we think we are"
Zev Eleff
Issue date: 10/8/07 Section: Features
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In addition to all the institutional changes at Yeshiva College the past few years, the YC Dean's Office is aggressively working to stop academic misconduct on the Wilf Campus. The Dean's Office feels strongly that decreasing the number of misconduct incidents will significantly correct the Grade Point Averages of YC students - a number close to 3.5 - and will bolster the College's reputation with professional and postgraduate schools.
One of the major obstacles for the YC Dean's Office is that there is little data on academic misconduct in YC from previous years. Associate Dean Fred Sugarman has spent significant time over the past year reorganizing files and collecting data so that the Office is better prepared to combat the problem.
Therefore, one of the primary ways the Dean's Office is trying to curtail academic misconduct is by demanding that faculty handle all incidents of suspected misconduct through the Dean's Office. Although Dean Srolovitz said that he believes many faculty report all such incidents, there is no way of knowing if most do. "We try to encourage faculty to bring such issues to our office rather than trying to deal with them on their own," explained Dean Srolovitz. "Sometime, we quickly come to the conclusion that there is not a strong enough case to move forward."
One senior faculty member believes that Yeshiva catches only a handful of misconduct incidents. He added that with heightened awareness of the faculty, the number of cases of academic misconduct reported will more closely match those at other colleges. A recent report by Rutgers professors shows that nearly 70% of students surveyed had cheated on a test at least once during college.
In the Spring 2007 semester there were twenty-eight cases of students accused of violating YC's academic integrity standards; five of those were cases of cheating on exams while the other twenty-three involved accusations of plagiarism. This rate is much smaller than at most other schools.
One of the major obstacles for the YC Dean's Office is that there is little data on academic misconduct in YC from previous years. Associate Dean Fred Sugarman has spent significant time over the past year reorganizing files and collecting data so that the Office is better prepared to combat the problem.
Therefore, one of the primary ways the Dean's Office is trying to curtail academic misconduct is by demanding that faculty handle all incidents of suspected misconduct through the Dean's Office. Although Dean Srolovitz said that he believes many faculty report all such incidents, there is no way of knowing if most do. "We try to encourage faculty to bring such issues to our office rather than trying to deal with them on their own," explained Dean Srolovitz. "Sometime, we quickly come to the conclusion that there is not a strong enough case to move forward."
One senior faculty member believes that Yeshiva catches only a handful of misconduct incidents. He added that with heightened awareness of the faculty, the number of cases of academic misconduct reported will more closely match those at other colleges. A recent report by Rutgers professors shows that nearly 70% of students surveyed had cheated on a test at least once during college.
In the Spring 2007 semester there were twenty-eight cases of students accused of violating YC's academic integrity standards; five of those were cases of cheating on exams while the other twenty-three involved accusations of plagiarism. This rate is much smaller than at most other schools.
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