For those of you who did not see this on Facebook, I want to share here as well — it has a lot of application to Life with Dogs…
I grieve the loss of integrity in academia.
The admission scandal horrifies me -- but does it surprise me? No.
As a grad student, I tutored student-athletes who were recruited without academic skills to play football for a top school.
As a university professor, I have been threatened and harassed and insulted. One father called and informed me he would be showing up and we would be meeting with the university president and so on and so forth -- how dare I accuse his son of cheating?!
I have identified more cases of plagiarism than I can count, including one (former) colleague, one applicant for a high level administration position, and a student who submitted a purchased essay for my ETHICS class.
I have seen misrepresentations on curriculum vitaes of university administrators.
I could on.
When we close our eyes to the "small" losses of integrity -- in academics, in a game, in life -- we push the line deeper and deeper into that dark and dangerous territory where justice and fairness can never exist.
My commitment to integrity has cost me dearly at times. However, to be part of creating a world where only the rich and powerful and corrupt have privilege doesn't work for me.
I won't apologize for my belief that integrity still matters. Big and small actions contribute to the erosion of integrity -- a blind eye gives permission. Is it that hard to just follow the rules?!
And because that is heavy and hard on my heart, I offer this…
