Desperate times call for desperate measures: where are we in addressing academic dishonesty?

M uch has been written about the prevalence of academic dishonesty in the past two decades. despite the dialogue, incidents have not only increased in number, but also in complexity as students discover even more creative and technologically savvy ways to circumvent the system. Gone are the days of simple plagiarism , glancing at another's paper during an examination , or using cheat sheats. Violations have evolved from " low-tech " to " high-tech " infractions, with the expectation of more to come. Most faculty can personally attest to this grim reality and the ongoing challenges they face in either identifying or preventing these incidents. What is equally disheartening is that many faculty have had the unpleasant experience of addressing a cheating incident only to realize that students often show little or no remorse for such actions, and that there are likely countless other violations that go undetected. at a recent nursing educators conference, faculty shared various examples of cheating driven by desperation , opportunism, and, in some cases, a blatant disregard for what is right. Highly questionable acts have gone beyond the classroom, such as upper level students overenrolling in classes and later selling their seats to a sought-after class to underclassmen for profit. Nothing seems off limits. recent headlines about the Columbia university student who openly plagiarized a valedictory speech, stealing his remarks directly from a comedy routine , serves to further underscore the fact that academic dishonesty has reached epidemic proportions (aBC News, 2010). although this trend is unsettling in the larger academic community, it is even more disturbing when it involves students in nursing and related health fields, who are supposed to be guided by standards of professional practice and ethics, and who are preparing for entry into an environment where dishonest behaviors can have potentially dire consequences. there are several theories among academics as to why such breaches have increased so dramatically of late. a complex interplay of factors has been identified, ranging from the strongly held belief that there has been a deterioration in moral values of the current generation (tanner, 2004), to a persistent attitude among students whereby " doing the right thing " has been replaced by " doing what it takes. " some blame the current generation of " helicopter " parents (who have morphed to " stealth bomber " levels under extreme circumstances) and their offspring who believe that everyone …