Lisa is a first-year college student during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her college has decided to remain open for students. Though quite shy herself, Lisa is happy to be assigned a very sociable roommate also within her major. Lisa takes her studies--and the school’s strict honor code--seriously. Unfortunately, Lisa’s friendly roommate, Eva, does not share the same academic integrity. After noticing Eva looking up answers online during a remote exam, Lisa is distraught. Because of her timidness in making new connections, Lisa feels dependent upon Eva to introduce her to new friends and build her social community at the school. At the same time, the policy regarding remote learning explicitly prohibits online searches during exams. Should Lisa report Eva to her professors, or turn a blind eye to blatant disregard for academic honesty?
Lisa is a freshman who entered college during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the pandemic, all of her classes moved online, and her college also announced that students had the option to live on campus if they preferred. Lisa decided to move to campus for her freshman year in order to meet her peers.
Lisa lives in a dorm and shares a room with one roommate, Eva. Quite shy, Lisa was initially nervous that she wouldn’t make friends at college. Luckily, she and Eva, who is outgoing, “hit it off” and became friends right away. Over the course of their first semester, Lisa made a lot of friends through Eva. Eva never made Lisa feel uncomfortable about being introverted, and Lisa is grateful that in spite of her social anxieties at the beginning of the semester, she now has a large group of friends.
Lisa and Eva are both majoring in Psychology and are therefore taking a lot of the same classes. At the end of their first semester, Lisa and Eva complete their final exams remotely in their shared room. During their exams, Lisa notices that Eva checks her notes and looks up answers up online, even though this has been forbidden by the professors. Lisa values honesty in her work and believes that cheating is wrong. She also takes seriously her commitment to the school’s code of conduct, which explicitly denounces cheating. Annoyed and upset, Lisa also knows that she would be even more upset if Eva ended up with higher grades as a result of cheating.
Lisa decides to tell Eva that she is aware that she’s been cheating. Instead of acting guilty and remorseful, Eva just laughs it off, telling Lisa to “get over it” and insisting that “everyone does it.”
Unsatisfied with Eva’s response to the situation, Lisa considers emailing Eva’s professors to tell them that Eva has been cheating. She knows, however, that Eva would get into a lot of trouble and may be put on probation. Lisa also doesn’t want Eva to be angry with her and stop being her friend. Things are further complicated by their mutual social circle--Lisa is scared that if Eva stops being her friend, she will lose the majority of her friendships, and her initial worries about being alone continue to concern her. On the other hand, Lisa is worried that if she doesn’t say anything now, Eva will keep cheating. Lisa believes Eva’s actions are fundamentally wrong, and Lisa struggles with her decision.
What would you do in this situation if you were Lisa? Do you think emailing Eva’s professors is necessary? What else might you do? Is cheating always unethical? Why, or why not? Have you ever had to tell a friend you thought their behavior wasn’t right? How did you handle it?