Almost half of Harvard University’s incoming freshmen say they’ve cheated on school work at least once, the student-run newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, found in a survey.
“Some of the newest members of that community are already guilty of academic dishonesty,” the Crimson said in its recently released findings, as reported in The New York Post.
The Ivy League school just suffered a nationwide taint from a massive cheating scandal that came to light in 2012. Then, it was revealed that dozens of students had plagiarized their answers for classwork in the “Introduction to Congress” course. And almost 70 students were expelled from the school in the ensuing fallout.
The Crimson’s study isn’t exactly heartening news to those who thought the school had learned its lesson.
Of the 1,300 students who participated in the Crimson’s survey, fully 42 percent said they had cheated on homework. One-in-10 of first-year students said they’d cheated on a test.
Bobby Samuels, the president of the Crimson, said to The Post that he was shocked after realizing that “every 1-in-10 people you see walking around the halls cheated on an exam.”
At the same time, “84 percent of respondents put academics first when asked to rank their anticipated priorities among academics, extracurriculars, varsity sports, paid employment and social life,” the Crimson reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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