By Sivi Satchithanandan’15, Staff Writer

From a young age, most students are taught that cheating is wrong – it’s a violation of your integrity, a breach of a teacher’s trust, and unfair to your peers. Most argue the punishments for cheating far outweigh the benefits. Yet, buoyed by a pair of cheating scandals that made headlines this summer, cheating seems to be on the rise.

 At Stuyvesant High School, a prestigious New York high school that counts four Nobel Prize winners among its alumni, 71 students were involved in a massive cheating scandal in which students sent and received exam answers using mobile phones during last June’s finals. Just north, at the nation’s oldest institution of higher learning, Harvard University, 125 undergraduates in an Introduction to Congress class allegedly cheated on a take-home test. The scandal brought around 2% of the University’s undergraduate population under administrative scrutiny, and sidelined a number of star athletes, including two basketball captains.

Unfortunately, these are not isolated cases. According to the Educational Testing Service (ETS), there has been a dramatic increase in cheating over the last 70 years. Based on anonymous surveys, ETS reports that the number of college students who confess to cheating has risen from 20% to nearly 90% during this period. As pointed out by Ms. Galvin, these statistics based on voluntary disclosure may not be reliable, but the trend is alarming.

The cheating that contributes to this trend may be aided by the technological advances in the past decade; as Dr. DiBianca said, “technology allows for easier access and therefore greater resources for temptation. Whether it’s an online paper or a cellphone to store answers – technology is a contributor.” The motivation for this cheating has become amplified over the years due to increased competition and pressure to succeed. In addition, ETS states that students are focusing more on grades than learning, which in turn causes them to cheat more. ETS reports that cheating no longer carries the stigma it used to. Post-scandal interviews of Stuyvesant students by the New York Times, showed that many students believe cheating is commonplace, and simply a way of surviving in an over-competitive environment.

Newark Academy is not immune to this trend. Dr. DiBianca feels that there was a “tiny uptick” of honor code infractions in the past year. According to Mr. Griffin, one of the two teachers on the Honor Council, the reason the Academy’s level of cheating is lower than most institutions elsewhere is because, “we talk about honesty, integrity and values. Just the presence of the honor council and the presentation we give every year helps reinforce the idea that we take this seriously. And maybe most importantly, we have discussions, high expectations and we want people to do the right thing.” In addition, Shivani Pandiri, a junior on the council, said, “the morning meeting presentation and the advisor group session are informational and hopefully reduce the temptation to cheat.”

Ultimately, Newark Academy relies on each of us to guard against cheating. Ms. Galvin put it best when she said, “You only have one reputation, one sense of conscience, and one sense of right choices. At the end of the day, only the individual can know whether he or she can walk with clarity of mind and spirit.”