Following an instance of cheating in his classroom, Thomas Li-Ping Tang, a professor in the department of management and marketing, distributed a contract designed to deter his students from cheating –lest they suffer eternal damnation.
The contract began with the Ten Commandments and concluded with the request of a oath that each student made no attempt to cheat during the previous week’s examination. The contract states that if a student had cheated, he or she would have “violated God’s Ten Commandments, will be sorry for the rest of [their] life and go to hell.”
“I tried to make sure we all do the good deeds and good things for students to be responsible managers,” Tang said. “I feel sorry if other students got hurt for that.”
Tang said as the class was a graduate level course, they had previously studied business ethics and should have made an appropriate decision not to cheat. He said he feels it is important to realize that actions speak louder than words, and that we have to focus on our actions to make a better society and community.
President Sidney McPhee said the incident is something that the university clearly would not support and that he feels Tang realized that he went too far.
“We have a written code of ethics,” McPhee said. “All universities have a code of ethics – it is clearly stated in our student handbook.”
Debra Sells, vice president of Student Affairs, said the faculty has the option of assigning a grade of “F” when cheating is suspected, or they can take the problem up with the department of judicial affairs. She said the administration recommends that faculty members clearly outline their academic misconduct policy in their syllabi or deal with the judicial review process as administered by the university.
“We want to make students feel that they are informed and the best way to have that in writing is the syllabus,” Sells said. “Honors codes are not only to prohibit cheating, but to compel other students who see them cheating to turn them in.”
E. James Burton, dean of the Jennings A. Jones College of Business, said he has left administrative decisions and disciplinary actions for the incident to the management and marketing department.
Jill Austin, chairwoman of the department of marketing and management, said she is going to conduct interviews with both Tang and his students to determine how she can make them feel comfortable in the class.
“Religion is not something that is typically part of a class,” Austin said. “I want the students to feel comfortable in the class and we will be looking into ways to move forward.”
Professor’s golden rule reinforces academic integrity
Published: Thursday, November 5, 2009
Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009
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