West Point Academy Cheating Incident Case Analysis
Autor: nat med • February 20, 2016 • Article Review • 1,519 Words (7 Pages) • 1,308 Views
West Point Cheating Incident Case Analysis
Medeya N Dim Bisse
Bellevue University
Assignment 6
October 17, 2015
West Point Academy Cheating Incident Case Analysis
DESCRIPTION
Lt. General Sidney Berry, Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point was faced with difficult decisions after the cheating incident. In fact, on May 19, 1976, as many as 100 second-classmen juniors and additional numbers of cadets cheated on electrical engineering take home exams. This was a violation of the code of honor and could have led to expulsion. The electrical engineering course is the most unpopular and difficult course that only counts as 5% of the students’ grade. 52 students were found guilty of cheating and 48 appealed theirs case. Further investigations have demonstrated that an additional 135 Cadets were involved in the cheating. Clearly, the code of honor state that all cadets that are found guilty by the honor system will be a subject to expulsion. Berry was really concerned about the situation because the cheating incident brought the attention of the public, media, press, government and the involvement of the secretary of the army and congress. Berry needed to actions due the fact that more pressure was on him.
DIAGNOSIS
The question that arise in this case is why the second-classmen (juniors) and cadets have chosen to cheat on their take home exams. The electrical engineering course was the most unpopular and difficult task for students of West Point Academy and most of them think that the course is unrelated to their career. Indeed, the course only counts as 5% of their total grade, which probably motives students to cheat. Equally, students may think that the cheating won’t be discovered. Because the code of honor is very strict and states that cadets should not lie, cheat and steal, many students thought the rules were too tight and should be reviewed. Cadets and second-classmen juniors should at all times display characteristics such as honesty, direct values, integrity, attitudes and discipline. The standard for military students is very high and at all times they are expected to meet the standard and sometimes exceed expectations. The second question that arises in this case is why the cadets and second-classmen have cheated at the same time.
As described in the text, West Point Academy is one of the best military schools in the world and only exceptional and brilliant students can be accepted. Those students can only be referred by a senator, congressman or the vice president or president of the United States of America. That is to say, students must be a role models for future students. But, the cheating incident may be linked to the fact that many of them or formers students have cheated before and have never been caught. So, for them it was normal to follow what others peoples or students were doing. All of those allegations bring Berry and the students to question the code of honor.
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