AS HONEST as most students try to be with their academic work, many may be cheating without even realizing it.? While the most common forms of cheating brought to trial concern collaboration on tests and plagiarism, there is another form of cheating that plagues this university but rarely, if ever, goes to trial.
This problem cannot be traced by teaching assistants, nor can statistical evidence prove its existence to a jury, as in the use of collaboration on multiple choice exams. Instead, this form of cheating occurs privately in libraries and bedrooms, out of the view of professors and completely undetectable except by blood tests. This method of cheating involves the use of attention-enhancing drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall without first having a prescription for the drug.
In a competitive university environment, time constraints are real factors for students trying to participate in sports and clubs while still maintaining a respectable grade point average. Having more hours in a day would allow many students adequate time to read, write, study and socialize. One simple method of finding more time is sleeping less. Still, some students abuse drugs like Adderall and Ritalin by taking it without a prescription in order to maintain focus in the midst of sleepless nights.
Adderall was created to relieve the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, creating more focus and a less need for sleep in the consumer. The weaker Ritalin relieves the symptoms of those suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder. Someone with these disorders may take these drugs if prescribed to them in order to alleviate the symptoms of a diagnose medical disorder, but those who choose to abuse the drugs gain an unfair advantage.
It would be almost impossible to say that pulling an all-nighter is cheating and very difficult to argue that the use of coffee or caffeine pills are methods of cheating, But using a prescription drug without a doctor's approval quickly crosses the line into submitting work that is not of the student's own merit because they used an illegal performance enhancer to do the work. The line of cheating is not necessarily where the law makes a product illegal, but where the effects of these drugs become the primary factor in a student's ability to perform the work.
Much like baseball's new rule banning performance-enhancing drugs, Adderall and similar drugs, when used without a prescription, violate the tenets of honor because they create an unfair advantage for the users who are willing to break the law in order to gain an edge. These students create work that is dependent upon the use of a pill rather than their own work ethic, and that constitutes outright cheating.
While the Honor Committee does not specify exactly which offenses are serious enough to justify permanent expulsion, methods exist to inform students about this dishonorable practice. Each jury of an honor trial is responsible for deciding if an act is an honor offense, however, professors can add literature to their syllabi stating that the use of non-prescribed, attention-enhancing drugs in order to gain a higher grade in a class is an act of cheating according to their own definition. This would allow juries to realize that students had been warned about the policy beforehand and therefore make convictions more likely.
Schoolwork aside, the abuse of these drugs is dangerous, and the possible side effects of the drugs far outweigh any benefit that could be gained through using them incorrectly. The Adderall website warns that those experiencing severe anxiety should not take the product. Since anxiety itself is one of motivating factors for using Adderall in stressful situations, the dangers of such abuse are even more apparent.
In addition, there are many other drugs that should not be taken at the same time as Adderall and Ritalin that a person who has not been prescribed the drug would not know about.
With an easy insertion into syllabi as well as better education about the abuse of prescription drugs in the general community, students will be less likely to risk their health and their academic integrity by taking these drugs in an attempt to receive better grades.
Greg Crapanzano's column usually appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at gcrapanzano@cavalierdaily.com.
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