Students Dilemma
A Student’s Dilemma
To cheat, or not to cheat, this is the question that Helen Kanell must answer. Helen has been a great student throughout her college career maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. However, nearing the end of college, Helen’s grades have slipped due to added responsibilities by Beta Alpha Psi, the accounting student honor society, to which she is the president. Helen’s best friend notices that she is struggling and wants to help her out, so she steals a copy of the final exam and gives it to Helen. So what should Helen do? Cheat, or not cheat?
Say Helen decides to use the test. On one hand Helen uses the test, passes, makes an A in the class, graduates summa cum laude, and proceeds with her career at Big & Apple LLC as if nothing ever happened. On the other hand, Helen uses the test, fails because teacher finds out, most likely removed as president of Beta Alpha Psi, graduates, but not summa cum laude, and still proceeds with her career at Big & Apple LLC unless of course the company were to find out of her unethical behavior, and in that case Helen would lose her newly accepted job opportunity. So would it be worth it to use the test?
Now say that Helen takes a moment and considers her ethical responsibilities most importantly to herself, but also to her fellow classmates, her professor, her parents, Beta Alpha Psi, Empire State University, and Big & Apple LLC. I think she would realize that she has gotten this far and accomplished so much already and even though she really wants to graduate summa cum laude the benefits do not outweigh the costs. The benefit of cheating on her final exam would be an A in the course, and graduating summa cum laude. The costs of cheating would be a 0 on the final exam, possibly bringing her B in the class down to a C, not graduating summa cum laude, being removed from Beta Alpha Psi, losing her job at Big & Apple, explaining to her parents how all of this happened, and finally having to
To cheat, or not to cheat, this is the question that Helen Kanell must answer. Helen has been a great student throughout her college career maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. However, nearing the end of college, Helen’s grades have slipped due to added responsibilities by Beta Alpha Psi, the accounting student honor society, to which she is the president. Helen’s best friend notices that she is struggling and wants to help her out, so she steals a copy of the final exam and gives it to Helen. So what should Helen do? Cheat, or not cheat?
Say Helen decides to use the test. On one hand Helen uses the test, passes, makes an A in the class, graduates summa cum laude, and proceeds with her career at Big & Apple LLC as if nothing ever happened. On the other hand, Helen uses the test, fails because teacher finds out, most likely removed as president of Beta Alpha Psi, graduates, but not summa cum laude, and still proceeds with her career at Big & Apple LLC unless of course the company were to find out of her unethical behavior, and in that case Helen would lose her newly accepted job opportunity. So would it be worth it to use the test?
Now say that Helen takes a moment and considers her ethical responsibilities most importantly to herself, but also to her fellow classmates, her professor, her parents, Beta Alpha Psi, Empire State University, and Big & Apple LLC. I think she would realize that she has gotten this far and accomplished so much already and even though she really wants to graduate summa cum laude the benefits do not outweigh the costs. The benefit of cheating on her final exam would be an A in the course, and graduating summa cum laude. The costs of cheating would be a 0 on the final exam, possibly bringing her B in the class down to a C, not graduating summa cum laude, being removed from Beta Alpha Psi, losing her job at Big & Apple, explaining to her parents how all of this happened, and finally having to