End of College Admissions Tests Due to Payoffs and Corruption?

Students with actual learning disabilities may feel the brunt of new rules in college testing as a result of this latest scam where parents paid to get their children accommodations that they did not deserve ("Is the College Cheating Scandal the ‘Final Straw’ for Standardized Tests?," New York Times, March 14, 2019)? However, almost 1000 colleges do not use SAT or ACT scores to select new students.

Discussion Questions:

1. What is the fairest way for colleges to decide which students to admit? Tests, essays, grades?
2. What should be the penalty for parents paying an individual, company, or college to allow their children to cheat their way into higher education?

Degree Revoked by University Due to Research Misconduct

A University of Colorado researcher lost his Ph.D. and his ability to receive federal funding for a three-year period due to misconduct in the lab ("Disgraced CU Scientist Debarred after Falsifying Data," Daily Camera, December 26, 2018). Lab personnel noted in interviews that the research "felt immense pressure from his mentor to produce quality results that could generate future funding for the lab." Based on governmental review of the case, Rajendra Kadam was found to have "engaged in research misconduct by knowingly and intentionally falsifying and/or fabricating data by manipulating peak area data to reduce variability and/or alter statistical significance for twenty-six figures and five tables in his Ph.D. thesis and in nine published papers."

Discussion Questions:

1. Would you risk having your college degree rescinded to alter research data in an experiment if your supervisor encouraged you to "produce quality results?" Why or why not?
2. Can this researcher salvage his reputation after losing his degree due to scientific misconduct? Why or why not?
3. If you were asked to engage in unethical behavior on the job, what would you do?

Physician's Unethical Research Potentially Harmed Patients

An anesthesiologist may have caused harm to surgical patients including kidney damage and death through his flawed research and potential misuse of "intravenous solutions containing hydroxyethyl starch, or hetastarch, which doctors use to stabilize the blood pressure of patients during and after surgery or trauma" ("A Scientist's Fraudulent Studies Put Patients at Risk," Science, October 26, 2018). Joachim Boldt who worked at an academic teaching hospital in Germany "likely fabricated data, ignored ethics rules, and committed other kinds of misconduct in 98 articles he published with co-authors."

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you think made this doctor seemingly put his patients in danger due to his unethical research?
2. If you worked with this doctor as an assistant and saw problems with his research, would you discuss the issue with him? Why or why not?

Student Loses College Degree 15 Years after Graduation Due to Plagiarism

After a master's thesis was corrected for plagiarism and a degree awarded, it was examined by a plagiarism checker years later and more plagiarism was identified leading to a professor losing his degree ("Judge Upholds University's Right to Rescind Master's Degree over Plagiarism," Calgary Herald, September 19, 2018). John Measor tried unsuccessfully to get the University of Calgary to let him keep the degree based on the fact that it had already been given to him, so he took his case to court. However, the judge sided with the university because the "power to award degrees necessarily implies the power of rescission." Justice Richard Neufeld in his decision also noted that "institutional integrity" requires a school to uphold the value of its degrees by taking back one that incorporated academic dishonesty.

Discussion Questions:

1. Does this case change your opinion about the importance of academic integrity when you create coursework for your classes? Why or why not?
2. Do you think the university was justified in taking back the degree years after it was given due to plagiarism by the former student? Why or why not?
3. The news story mentions that John Measor also changed his story about the plagiarized thesis during the various hearings. Would you rule in his favor and let him keep the degree if he wasn't clear about what really happened? Why or why not?

Save Your Data (and Your Job) to Prove Your Research Results

An investigation into flawed research brought down a once-noted Cornell University professor who now has had thirteen papers retracted ("This Ivy League Food Scientist Was a Media Darling. He Just Submitted His Resignation, the School Says." The Washington Post, September 20, 2018). One of the problems is that Brian Wansink's results cannot be verified because data in its original form was not kept. Another related article from Vox stated that his lab employees cherry-picked favorable results to support hypotheses.

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you think the professor's reputation has been permanently harmed by these accusations? Why or why not?
2. Vox suggests that professors are under pressure to publish results that support their hypotheses instead of discussing why research didn't work or other questions of significance. If keeping your job depended on only finding statistically significant results in your research would you be tempted to alter results to fit your hypotheses? Why or why not?
3. It was also mentioned that "Wansink had a knack for producing studies that were catnip for the media." Do you think the professor wanted more publicity for his work, so he succumbed to shoddy research practices to get anything and everything published to feed his ego? Why or why not?

British Singer-Songwriter Accused of Adding Copied Elements of Another Artist's Song

After dealing with two previous legal disputes on using parts of other's songs, the Grammy-winning Sheeran is now defending himself against charges that he included "melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping” from a Marvin Gaye 1970's tune in his song, "Thinking Out Loud" ("Ed Sheeran Sued Again Over ‘Thinking Out Loud’ — This Time for $100 Million," Variety, June 28, 2018). The other two copyright infringement incidents involved the songs "Photograph" and "The Rest of Our Life."

Discussion Questions:

1. Since there are only so many notes in the musical scale, do you think it's easy to copy someone else's work? Why or why not?
2. Do you think Sheeran's reputation with his fans will suffer from this negative publicity? Do you think fans will stop listening to his music if it seems he's not creating new music on his own? Why or why not?
3. Do you think other singers and songwriters will not want to work with him for fear he will use their work in his "compositions?" Why or why not?

Quizlet App Misuse by University Students in Texas

Texas Christian University students received failing grades (but later had their suspensions cancelled) for using the Quizlet app to gain an unfair advantage in testing, calling into question the unethical aspects of this study help when students upload current test questions and share them ("Learning Tool or Cheating Aid?" Inside Higher Ed, May 14, 2018). While Quizlet posts an honor code on its web site, students may not know in advance that they are viewing a test question that will be on an upcoming exam. But if they see a Quizlet question on an exam, they are obligated to alert the professor that the question was seen online before the test. One professor noted that it would be best to rework questions each semester, but there may be a limit to how many different configurations can be used to state a question.

Discussion Questions:

1. What would you do if you saw a question from Quizlet on an actual test?
2. Should professors create new tests each semester to minimize cheating from students who share test questions from past exams? Why or why not?
3. How could Quizlet be changed to prevent students from cheating?