Student openly admits to cheating on SAT

bclintonk
Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:39:24 +0000

Princeton’s Honor Code contains the following requirement:



Art. V, Section 6: “Every student is obligated to report to the Honor Committee any suspected violation of the honor code that he or she has observed.”



Under this so-called “rat clause,” a student would be in violation of the honor code, and therefore subject to sanctions up to and including expulsion, if s/he had credible evidence pointing to cheating by another student—such as, for example, that student’s verbal admission to cheating on a test—and failed to report it. So for those of you who are saying, “It’s nobody’s business but the cheater’s,” consider this: Princeton considers it your business if you’re the bystander who comes upon credible evidence to warrant even a credible suspicion of cheating. And Princeton takes your obligation to report the suspected violation so seriously that YOU could be expelled for keeping your mouth shut.

For the OP: it’s likely this case of cheating, if it is that, will never be found out. If it were, though, and if it came to light that your D knew about it and elected to remain silent, then schools like Princeton would have a serious problem with your daughter’s ethical posture toward cheating. But the bigger issue is not the likelihood of being caught. The issue, bottom line, is that your D has to decide for herself whether the social norm of not “ratting” on an acquaintance is more important than the ethical principle that informs the Princeton honor code, namely that academic integrity, and therefore all of academia, is coarsened and devalued and distorted to everyone’s detriment if cheating is tolerated.