CollegeHumor is no authoritative academic research source, but according to the multimedia comedy Web site, Ball State University students have a cheating problem.
An online survey of 29,176 college students found that Ball State was first in cheating among universities with 30 or more survey respondents. According to the Web site, 71.9 percent of Ball State students who participated in the survey admitted to academic dishonesty. Appalachian State was second with 67.9 percent admitting to cheating, and Penn State was third with 67.2 percent.
Provost Terry King said that he has seen no evidence to indicate Ball State has more incidences of academic dishonesty than any other university.
"[The survey] is an unscientific survey on a humor Web site," he said. "I doubt its validity."
The survey found that of respondents, cheaters have an average 18 percent better grade point average than their more ethical counterparts, and that 64.8 percent of male respondents cheat, while 42 percent of females do.
Senior Anya Janeway said that though most college students don't want to cheat, a desire to achieve coupled with a heavy workload sometimes makes it a popular option.
"Students just get so desperate," she said. "They feel like they have to [cheat]." Janeway said she did not think cheating was more of an issue at Ball State than any other university.
Academic dishonesty is a violation of the Ball State student code. According to the code, a teacher who believes a student has cheated must confront the student. The student then can admit to or deny cheating.
If the teacher and student cannot reach an agreement, the teacher must make a formal accusation of cheating and notify the department chair. If the disagreement cannot be solved, the case is forwarded to the University Academic Ethics Committee. Punishment for cheating can range from the assigning of the student to the Multimedia Integrity Teaching Tool program to failure of the course.
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