The faculty’s treatment of student behavior has a considerable influence on the attendant values-formation of students as well as their willingness to adhere to standards, yet the effect of students’ dishonesty and unethical practices has received less focus as seen through the scarcity of information regarding the prevalence of dishonesty (Swazey, Anderson, & Louis, 1993).
The academe has been turning into a bastion of personal influences in terms of turning a blind eye to student dishonesty. School administrators are influenced by personal and other material ties that sway their judgment on dishonest students. This also affects how the greater student body eventually regards the honesty and integrity of the learning institution itself. Some aspects of academic ethics are seen to be corroding in the eyes of the students as mutual trust within the academic community deteriorates at the expense of honesty and integrity, with political and financial influences as the culprits behind this sad state (Kerr, 1994).
However, there are centers of learning that correct this seemingly prevalent trend of having less focus and looser reins on student dishonesty. There are schools that institutionalize the matter of ethics within the framework of learning in their schools. They do this by integrating an ethics program within the academic environment. In these efforts, the ethics program is introduced, integrated, and promoted in all aspects of school functions such as mission statements, curriculum development, ethics policy, program oversight, and outcome assessment (Weber, 2006). These schools hope to serve as models to other schools who also want to develop and implement such efforts.
