News-Record.com

It wasn't that long ago that a spate of college cheating stories seemed to grab the headlines every other day and we wondered aloud whether we were becoming not a nation accomplished in achieving, but in finding clever new ways to beat the system.

Why be good when the path was easier and quicker to the top if we were bad?

Remember the University of Maryland students who used text messaging to share answers?

Then the headlines went away. But maybe the cheating didn't stop.

The latest news comes from Duke University, where 34 MBA students have been convicted of cheating in the largest cheating scandal in the program's history.

At least the students practiced the principles of teamwork, a report from the News & Observer noted in a story this week.

They also seem to represent an international coalition. The students, who are enrolled in the Fuqua School of Business, are from the United States, plus countries on four other continents.

The penalties are severe: Nine students face expulsion; 15 will automatically flunk the course and be suspended from school for a year.

Nine will receive failing grades in the course, but no additional sanctions.

The temptation to cheat is probably as high as it's ever been. Technology makes it so enticing.

But so does the desperation to seek a competitive edge.

And none of us appears immune.

There's today's Sports section story about the Elon quarterback -- and Ragsdale grad -- who has lost his last year of playing eligibility because of an unspecified academic honor code violation.

Then there's the MIT dean of admissions recently resigned after it was revealed that she padded her resume with degrees she never earned.

As the Boston Globe reports, the resume of Marilee Jones listed degrees from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union College and Albany Medical College. None of which she actually possesses.

Yeah, I know, journalism has had its share of miscreants as well. You didn't think I'd forget that, did you?

And we're equally wrong and dumb and unethical when we do it. Actually more so, because there is a public trust involved.