If you were to ask Peabody Professor Andrew Van Schaack if cheating is a problem on Vanderbilt's campus, his answer would be simple - yes.

In the 2007-2008 academic year alone, the Vanderbilt Honor Council heard 63 cases, involving a total of 81 students, all regarding questions of academic integrity on Vanderbilt's campus. Van Schaack said he thinks this number is small, and more cheating is occurring than people are willing to acknowledge.
"If you've seen somebody copying someone else's work, you've seen cheating. If you've seen a student tell another student what is on a test, that's cheating," Van Schaack said.

Van Schaack said he thinks cheating is a significant challenge facing Vanderbilt.

"There is a lot of cheating that goes on, on campus, and I think that any cheating is a problem," Van Schaack said. "So if you have a lot of cheating, you have a big problem."

While Van Schaack said he sees the issues regarding cheating on Vanderbilt's campus as clear cut, he believes students may not hold such firm convictions about what constitutes cheating.

"I think students know what the most obvious forms of cheating are, but this
idea of what is group work, what is acceptable, with that sort of thing, I think there may be some confusion," Van Schaack said.

Indeed, there seems to be a broad range of opinions regarding what is right and what is wrong as far as academic integrity is concerned. The Vanderbilt Hustler sat down with seven students to discuss the issues concerned with cheating on campus and found that students exhibit a vast range of opinions and concerns as far as what constitutes cheating, and whether or not cheating is a problem on campus.

All seven students The Hustler spoke with agreed looking over at someone else's paper in the middle of an exam was cheating.

Arts and Science junior Cathya Olivas said checking out your neighbor's paper was a clear violation of the Honor Code.

"I think personally when you ask a friend for help on a test, that's definitely cheating" Olivas said.

The ambiguities in student opinions began to emerge as they were asked to examine areas of cheating that were less well-defined. In fact, among the seven students, there were serious disagreements about whether or not cheating is even a problem on Vanderbilt's campus.

John Del Piero, a junior in the School of Engineering, said he did not think cheating was a problem on Vanderbilt's campus.

"No, I don't see it very often, so I don't think that it's a problem," Del Piero said.

On the other hand, Kathryn Trappey, a junior in the College of Arts and Science, said she thinks cheating is a major problem.

"I know that a lot of people (cheat)" Trappey said.

Junior Jon Andereck said he also thinks cheating is a serious problem on Vanderbilt's campus.

"I know that it happens, definitely, especially in large lecture classes and things like that. I would say that it's a bigger problem than it gets credit for," Andereck said.

In addition, the students also disagreed on whether working together on projects without a professor's permission constitutes cheating.
Sophomore Human and Organizational Development major Larry Smith said he doesn't think that working together on assignments constitutes cheating.

"I wouldn't say that's cheating, I just think it makes the job a whole lot easier with everyone working together than people trying to do the job for themselves," Smith said.

However, Del Piero said he thought working together on a project without permission definitely should be considered cheating.

"I mean, if it's a big project why wouldn't you ask your teacher? I mean, worst case, they say no and you move on," Del Piero said.

Another controversial issue for the students was the use of test files.
The students revealed varied opinions on whether or not the use of test files constituted cheating.

Junior Stacey Griffin said she thought the use of test files was cheating.
"I would say (using test files is) cheating. Just because it's sort of an unfair advantage that other people get ... and sometimes those tests are exactly the same, so you aren't doing your own work. It's basically writing someone else's work, so I would say that it was cheating," Griffin said.

"I don't see it any more different than a teacher posting a past test online. In actuality, it may not be as helpful, because you don't have the answer key, you may just have someone's test that they didn't even do well on," Olivas said.

The students also exhibited serious disagreements about the role the Honor Code plays in students' everyday lives.

Del Piero said he did not think about the Honor Code on a daily basis.
"I have my own moral code. I'll follow that. The Honor Code is just something that is there that puts boundaries on that. I don't look at it regularly," Del Piero said.

Trappey said she agreed with him.

"I follow my own moral standards. I would never do something or not do something because of the Honor Code. I would just do it because it seemed right or wrong to me," Trappey said.

Andereck said he disagreed because he believed the Honor Code was a part of everyday life on campus.

"The Honor Code is kind of the foundation for learning. If you go to all of your lectures and classes with the attitude of I want to learn this, that's what I'm here for and I don't want to take the easy way out to get an A in this class, then yeah, it becomes a part of your everyday experience," Andereck said.

Students have a broad range of opinions regarding what qualifies as cheating, whether it is prevalent on campus, and the Honor Council's presence at Vanderbilt.