Adapted from WAFBLA “Everyone Else Does It!” Ethics Project
You have been struggling in your Engineering Models class. The content does not come easily, so you have put in countless hours to understand and do the assignments. There is another student who breezes through the assignments, getting high marks for the work he turns in. You know for a fact that he has used his college-aged cousin to do some of the assignments for him. You don’t know how many assignments were turned in this way, but you are certain that he, in fact, did not do all the work. Your frustration increases over the last assignment that you worked overtime on, but did poorly. Of course, this other student scored well on the same assignment. You drop the teacher an anonymous note about the implied cheating on the part of this other student.
Questions: 1) What do you believe are the ethical issues related to this situation? Not being prepared to turn in the assignment. Trying to use someone elses work as your own. |
2) Write an argument supporting the actions taken. Be sure to tie your response to one of the ethical frameworks discussed. This is the rights approach as you are telling the teacher that another student is not turning in his actual work. This will make the challenge of the assignment fair for everyone. |
3) Write an argument against the actions taken. Be sure to tie your response to one of the ethical frameworks discussed. You should just let the other student do what he wants to and tell him that he won’t be able to get help when he does the exam. |
4) Were you in this situation, what would your response be? Why? I would also tell the teacher that he is cheating so that it would be fair for everyone who turns in their homework. |
Situation 2: Occidental Engineering
Author: Michael McFarland, S.J.
Wayne Davidson is a software engineer in the aerospace division of Occidental Engineering, a large engineering firm. For the past two