Ethics and the College Student

Ethics and the College Student
Today’s College students face many ethical dilemmas, dealing with the much talked about plagiarism and the not so talked about prescription drugs, as well as the very common decision to go to the party or to stay in and study for the midterm.   These dilemmas though mainly plaque the students residing on campus and who attend their classes in the traditional classroom, they also are becoming a problem with the nontraditional online students as well.
The biggest seems to be Plagiarism (using someone else’s work as your own), which seems a simple thing to avoid, but can get tricky when you get down to the nitty gritty of what one person considers plagiarism and what someone else things it is…For some people who commit plagiarism they do it by accident, and it’s a simple as forgetting to cite someone else’s idea or citing incorrectly.   While others it seems that rather than being entirely ignorant of the principles of citation, students are often aware of them but do not entirely accept them. (Blum, 2009)   Many colleges have been cracking down on this by having honor codes that every student must read, sign and adhere to and they also now have programs where they can submit the students papers and it checks to see if is their own words or if they copied off someone else.   Student academic misconduct, such as cheating and plagiarism, has increased in recent decades and is an important concern in higher education.   Meanwhile, it has been reported that faculty members often do little to prevent misconduct or to challenge students who engage in it. (Conway, Hard, & Moran, 2006)
Another big thing that is making students question their ethics is prescription drug use, not necessarily their own prescription, but those of other students that they intentionally buy from.   Though some people are now calling them “study aides”, using prescription drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin which can increase a student’s focus and alertness; these drugs...