Student Blog: Let's Talk About Academic Integrity

Maintaining academic integrity is hard. Necessary, yet still hard nonetheless. With the kinds of websites at students' disposal today, it feels like there is every opportunity to cheat.

Between ChatGPT, Quizlet, Chegg, Sparknotes, Google, and more, there are so many different options for students to choose from everyday when it comes to getting help completing their homework and exams. It can be incredibly difficult to resist that kind of temptation, especially in a world where academics have become largely virtual.

As a college student with a loaded schedule, sometimes cheating can feel like the easiest option, something that can help make a stressful workload get done faster and more efficiently. And maybe that's true. But I can't help but think about the after effects of consistent cheating and the reality of disregarding academic integrity.

If all you do is find ways to avoid doing your work honestly and with real effort, you are going to find yourself at the end of your college career questioning if you ever truly learned something in the first place. Students pay thousands upon thousands of dollars every year to take classes and work towards getting a degree. And for what? To stand on a stage in front of our families holding a piece of paper with no real meaning behind it because you didn't take the time to sit and learn?

The momentary gratification of cheating is not worth the long lasting outcome. You want to go out into the world post-grad with real knowledge under your belt, ready to change the world and do well in whatever you decide to do. That can't happen if ChatGPT wrote all of your essays for you and answered every exam question. Real understanding comes from you.

While it's oftentimes hard to remember, learning is a gift and a privilege. Education is the foundation for all of our collective futures, and we all have to be cognizant of that. We are the next generation of leaders, artists, scholars, etc., and what we do matters.

It isn't always about getting the perfect grade on an exam. It's about taking something with you that you'll never forget, and learning something new about yourself and the world around you in exciting and surprising ways. While I have always personally struggled with that, the idea of letting school be more to me than just the grades I see on my transcript, I have realized since coming to college that there is so much out there to discover and it would be a shame to overlook the real significance of learning just because I am too focused on getting an A.

Learning doesn't have to be as difficult of a thing as we make it out to be. Find joy in it, practice good study habits, make learning fun and interesting for you. When you find ways to make learning enjoyable and not a chore, there's no need to cheat. Do it for yourself!

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