Want your math homework done for you?

That’s the headline in one Sacramento State student’s ad on Craigslist, a website for free classified ads. A small handful of other Craigslist ads promises to deliver English and foreign language papers for $10 to $20 per page.

According to Sac State’s academic honesty policy, cheating is defined as “obtaining or attempting to obtain credit for academic work through the use of any dishonest, deceptive, or fraudulent means.” Punishments for cheating can range from a verbal warning to losing your degree.

Craigslist allows posters to remain anonymous. The Internet even has pre-written research papers on nearly every subject imaginable.

Some say technology makes cheating easier.

“Technology is a wonderful thing, but it’s a double-edged sword,” said Leonard Valdez, director of Student Conduct.

Valdez said students can find ways to cheat online, but teachers can catch cheaters with online tools. Sites such as turnitin.com search student papers for content found in other publications.

In an e-mail, the Sac State junior who posted the above ad said that although no one has requested his services yet, he expects they will contact him when semester work gets more demanding.

“People cheat because they want to get paid and not work?kind of the modern American dream,” he wrote.

He said he decided to offer his math services because he “has a lot of down time between classes.”

“There is no grand scheme, it was kind of impulsive…if I don’t complete the work for whatever reason it’s not me that gets the blame,” the student wrote.

As technology and information-sharing capabilities grow, does cheating expand too?

“Cheating has really grown?not only (those) that are reported, but for students to kind of believe this is the way to get by,” Valdez said. “I am always shocked and surprised by the number of students who tell me, ‘Oh yeah, I know students who do it,’ and ‘If I could do it to get an A, I would.’ “

“Why do it?” Valdez asked. “You’re only here for yourself.”

What is cheating?

Cheating includes plagiarism, using notes during an exam, using one assignment in two classes and paraphrasing someone else’s ideas without giving them credit.

“You can plagiarize music and art, even formulas,” Valdez said.

Right now, all behavioral policies are under review, Valdez said. It’s a process that can take more than a year for just one policy to be reviewed.

Manwhile, Sac State’s 2004 academic honesty policy still holds true.

What counts as cheating to students varies person by person.

One student said that studying with someone who is smarter or has worked is a form of cheating because you haven’t done the class work all semester, but instead profit from someone else’s work.

Karen Ballerini, asenior sociology major, disagreed.

“That’s working smart, not working hard,” she said.

Junior criminal justice major Paul McClain agreed with Ballerini, calling that method “creative and intuitive studying.”

McClain saw more cheating in high school than in college, because “there are too many consequences.”

“In high school you get an F on the assignment. Here, you get kicked out,” he said.

How common is cheating?

Valdezsaid an increase in teacher diligence has led to an increase in the number of reported incidents.

However, University Reading and Writing Coordinator Dan Melzer said cheating is not any more prevalent today than in years past.

“I think the factors that play the most significant roles in why students are tempted to cheat are the same now as they always were: writing assignments that students perceive as formulaic or not relevant to their learning goals; lack of peer and teacher response during the writing process; and time pressures from having to balance school, work, and family life,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Students who asked not to be named said they are more likely to cheat in a class they feel won’t be useful to them in their careers, especially if a friend has taken the class before.

“Some teachers give the same assignment every semester, and it’s easy to take someone else’s homework and put it in different words,” one alumna said.

Especially, she said, in a Greek organization where students need to keep their grades up to remain members.

“We’re all supposed to be support systems to each other, and if we’ve taken the class before, we do our best to help each other out,” she said.

Sophomore criminal justice major Araceli Guerrero disagrees.

“Just because there is a certain GPA requirement, doesn’t mean they cheat to do this,” she said, speaking from her organization’s booth in the quad.

How are cheaters caught?

“It’s usually not subtle,” said Roger Leezer, chair of the of mathematics and statistics department. “If someone is cheating, you can tell.”

He explained that even in math, no two students solve a problem from scratch in exactly the same way. When two assignments look identical, it’s a sure sign of cheating.

Leezer said there have been no reported cases of cheating in the math department in the last three years.

Melzer said professors in the English department try not to have the attitude like they are out to “catch” students.

“I think designing original and interesting writing assignments and asking students to engage in an extensive writing process discourages plagiarism much more than any computer program,” he wrote in an e-mail.

What happens when cheaters are caught?

Verbal warnings are rare and usually reserved for students who did not intend to violate the rules, Valdez said. They’re reserved for those people who forget to put quote marks around a citation, for example.

Usually students caught cheating are suspended from school, Valdez said.

According to Executive Order 970 from the Chancellor’s Office, if a student’s suspension lasts longer than a year, the suspension goes on his or her permanent record.

That suspension will show up on background checks, so it could impact students looking to start a career in a position where ethics matter. Cops, bankers, social workers and teachers are a few examples.

Worst-case scenario?

“When we discover a student who has manipulated the system, we don’t think twice about rescinding their degree,” Valdez said.

Valdez estimates that on average, one to two Sac State alumni lose their degrees each year. Sometimes cheaters aren’t caught until three or four years after they have graduated.

“Every institution wants to protect their degree?.It’s by a piece of paper that we certify that you as a student have overcome all the obstacles we put in your way,” Valdez said.

“It raises our sense of not only outrage but a sense of protecting our students who have earned a degree.”

“Think about it,” Valdez said. “Is it worth your livelihood for the sake of trying to take a shortcut?”

Lacey Waymire can be reached at [email protected].