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If anything has surprised me about college it’s that some students still cheat. And they usually don’t get away with it. I’ve seen students get pulled aside for their seemingly plagiarized papers and called out for blatantly having their phones out during exams. Professors take it pretty seriously. I found that out last year when I was accused of cheating.

Almost every syllabus that is given out at the beginning of the semester quotes the policy on academic dishonesty. According to Drury’s policy, anyone caught cheating receives a failing grade for the assignment and has to answer to the dean–who’s actually a pretty nice guy, so I personally wouldn’t want to disappoint him. From what I understand, professors really don’t like having to make a report that when cheating occurs. Professors trust (and hope) that students won’t make that decision.

In case you don’t know or you’ve forgotten, here’s a list of things that could happen if your professor catches you cheating:

• Re-do the assignment
• Fail the assignment
• Have grade lowered
• Fail the class
• And whatever else seems appropriate to the professor

It may also be interesting to note that if a student cheats at Drury, it’s easy to find out who did it–especially with small classes. I imagine it’s kind of embarrassing to get caught.

Have you ever seen someone cheat or attempt to cheat?