Creating A Culture Of Academic Integrity

Colin Diver, former president of Reed College, came to Here & Now studios in Boston to discuss his views on academic integrity. (Jesse Costa/Here & Now)

A recent cheating scandal at Harvard University got Colin Diver thinking — and writing, in the Boston Globe.

Diver, a former president of Reed College, writes in an opinion piece that to prevent cheating, schools shouldn’t focus on policing students.

Rather, they should create a culture of academic honor that holds students and faculty accountable to one another and decreases emphasis on grades.

Boston Globe: Students Will Show Academic Integrity — If Colleges Support It

Guest:

Colin Diver, former president of Reed College in Portland, Oregon

Other stories from Friday's show

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

Rex Henry

Maybe more tests should be collaborative. Every student receives different questions, they collaborate to teach each other, making the learning process more effective.
J Frog

I chuckled when Robin asked “We don’t know how much cheating Harvard missed….How do you know you just didn’t miss it?” Ah..yes. So easy to cheat and….how do we know? Another case where photo ID could help verify a system.
The_Truth_Seeker

Wow!! Hey, press, look into the 2004 Siemens Science Competition! – the students seem to have done everything right, but in this case it was the “adults” and “professionals” that got it all wrong and then didn’t want to admit it! University officials actually went along with Siemens in covering up what really happened and never informed the press (or the press were also in on the cover-up). Proof of this now exists in writing (so sue me Siemens – PLEASE!!!). Wonder if the 1000+ students (who didn’t win anything) ever found out. I don’t think so. Would they even care now? I don’t know, but I do.

And, what about the whole emphasis on “winning prizes” and getting on TV, in order to “score” (win) an important and scarce STEM scholarship? Isn’t this done to mainly help promote the company offering it and get them lots of free publicity? Will handing out ONE $100K, ONE $50K and ONE $25K scholarship (out of 1000+ students seeking one) help stem the decline of interest in science and technology in this country (particularly if mistakes happen in the process)? Couldn’t Siemens (and other big companies) afford to just give out 100-1000 $50K scholarships, without all the “dog & pony” shows? It would cost them $5M-$50M but they make billions every year. These contests (like grades) make little or no difference at all to the future success of students and in the case of high profile science contests, in particular, usually reward the already affluent students (who have easier access to highly trained “mentors”).
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=686519255 Daniel Healy

MCAS for Massachusetts Community Colleges. Watering down content and lowering standards has been the norm for the past 23 years I have worked as an instructor here in Massachusetts. I’ve left because of the ‘scam’ atmosphere of my colleagues. No way would I support Higher Education here in Massachusetts without bonafide exit testing. It’s not even 13th grade anymore, it’s more like 8th grade with respect to math. Good luck Massachusetts, we lower standards but we don’t lower pay. We pay these bloated salaries to folks that do less EVERY YEAR!

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