I’m in a media war with RPI

Three days ago the lead story in the Albany Times Union was about cheating in local colleges and how one in particular (good ole RPI) was resisting a code of ethics prohibiting such actions.
Being an alumni who saw all the cheating in the aforementioned article first hand, I decided to write reporter Marc Perry. That lead to a phone interview, which led to this story in today’s newspaper:

Dispute on old exams

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Richard G. Folsom Library has 521,165 bound volumes, over 93,892 government documents and 509 print journal subscriptions.

But according to one alum, some fraternities and sororities offer a more useful collection: years of old exams and homework assignments.

Adam McFarland ('04) wrote the Times Union about these alleged "libraries" after the paper reported on debates at RPI and Union College over adopting honor codes.

"Where it really becomes cheating is when the students bring the past exams (including final exams) to their tests and directly copy," wrote McFarland, an Albany resident who runs a Web marketing and design company.

"Most engineering classes are open book/open notes because of the difficulty of the subject matter, so it's EASY to sneak in 10 years of back tests without being noticed. Even the best professors reuse a problem over the course of 10 years. All the cheater has to do is find the problem and copy."

In an interview, McFarland told Campus Notebook he wasn't in a fraternity. But he said he saw a file cabinet filled with the old materials in at least one and spoke with other students about the practice.

RPI Dean of Students Mark Smith said professors commonly make old exams available as study guides and not just to Greeks.But no two exams are the same, he said. The old tests "are not particularly relevant to current course work."

He called McFarland's claims "mythology." "The mythology I'm referring to is if you have these old tests you don't have to do the work -- you can just study the old exams and get your 'A.' And that's not true," he said. "If you don't know the material, the old tests are not going to help you."

Josh Coyne of RPI's Interfraternity Council said, "The fraternities and sororities are not organizing to defraud the academic system. That is definitely not the case."

First off, this happens and it happens often. In the days since my interview I have spoken to several alumni who agree 100% with my sentiments, however for their own personal reasons did not want to go on public record with their statements.

Let’s break this down a bit further. All students save their old material. It’s natural for members of a fraternity or sorority to share old homework and tests. It’s also natural for them to save several years of old assignments to help fellow members study in the future. I see nothing wrong with this – it is smart.

But let’s not pretend that a student wouldn't then take the next logical step and photocopy the old exams (or print them out…I'm guessing the majority of historical classwork is probably stored online now) and bring them with their notes and textbook to an open book exam. I saw it in nearly EVERY exam I took. When you couple that with a faculty more concerned about research dollars than their students, you have a recipe for disaster.

I want to address the quotes in the article by Dean Smith and Josh Coyne:

• old tests "are not particularly relevant to current course work." I knew plenty of kids who only studied from back tests. What “current course work” are you talking about? The core engineering classes – statics, dynamics, calculus, physics – haven’t changed in years. There are only so many problems a professor has at his or her disposal, and if you have their last five years of tests in your binder, there’s a good chance the professor will repeat the problem. Not always, but it happens often enough.
• The mythology I'm referring to is if you have these old tests you don't have to do the work -- you can just study the old exams and get your 'A.' And that's not true," he said. "If you don't know the material, the old tests are not going to help you." Again, I agree that in the long run you need to know the material. But in a class where you are tested 3-4 times for the semester, you can certainly gain a decided advantage over your classmates by having historical exams at your fingertips during the current exam. You dismissed the notion that previous tests don't help you get an A when you admit in the previous sentence that old tests are made available to students!
• Josh Coyne of RPI's Interfraternity Council said, "The fraternities and sororities are not organizing to defraud the academic system. That is definitely not the case." I want to clear something up. I don’t think the fraternities or sororities are organizing cheating. I don’t believe that anywhere in their bylaws do they condone what I’m talking about. I knew plenty of honest fraternity members who did their work the same way I did. BUT when you encourage the sharing of material, you also open yourself up to the possibility that said material could be used in an unfair manner – in my mind bringing material to tests that other students don’t have is unfair. The IFC has a responsibility along with the Dean and the professors to make an effort to uncover the truth and ensure an equal playing ground for all students.

I also ask you to consider what my motivation here is. I don’t want to see my degree become worthless by a cheating scandal – quite the opposite – I want the problem to be addressed immediately so that the prestige of RPI remains in tact. But more than all of that, I want to see the future business leaders of this world mature into ethical individuals in their four years at RPI. Pumping out brilliant graduates with questionable moral standards that go on to start their own companies and obtain high level positions at companies like GE and IBM is bad for everyone – the university, the companies, and most importantly the society we live in.

Regarding the "code of ethics" that students are refusing to sign. Why exactly is that? It's like steroids in baseball - if you don't have anything to hide you should have no problem taking a drug test to clear your name. If you aren't cheating, you shouldn't have a problem signing a code of ethics.

The bottom line is this - cheating is a problem at RPI. Leadership at the school turns a blind eye and lets it happen. That is wrong. The first step to solving any problem is admitting that there is a problem, and unfortunately RPI appears incapable of doing that at this point in time and that saddens me.