MEDRANO, Crystal Joan D.

Prior to the admission to the University of the Philippines, there are numerous conflicts
to conquer. There is the UPCAT or the University of the Philippines College Admission Test,
and then there are those nights before going to sleep where you kept on wondering whether you
did answer those particular questions right or not. The greatest feeling, however, comes when
checking the site to confirm whether you passed or failed the test.
It is mentioned in the news, even by some professors, that we, who passed this test, are
the cream of the crop or the best of the best. However, with a snap of the finger, this opportunity
could be vanished. One of these acts that could change your normal, academic life is
intellectual dishonesty.
There are various forms of intellectual dishonesty, namely, plagiarism, copying or
providing the means to copy a school activity, allowing another person to take an examination or
school activity in ones name, manipulating a corrected examination paper, and submission of
the same work in two or more courses without the instructors consent.
Before elaborating on these mentioned forms, it is important to emphasize that when
caught, the first violation includes suspension for a minimum of one semester to expulsion, and
the second violation automatically expulses the violator.
Plagiarism is the act of copying another persons work without his or her consent. This is
one sensitive topic, since the failure to cite properly, even if that person did not intend to
plagiarize, is one act of plagiarism. Also, it is mentioned by one of my professor that direct
quoting a person, even when properly cited, in a laboratory report is also under this.
Copying or providing the means to copy a school activity, allowing another person to
take an examination or school activity in ones name, and manipulating a corrected examination
paper are also means for expulsion, when caught. There are many ways to provide answers to
questions, whether in an exam or quiz. There are gadgets, or illegal cheat sheet hiding
somewhere, which could be easily seen during the examination or quiz proper. Using another
person to conduct a school activity in a certain persons place is something that I sometimes
joke about, but little did I know that something like this does happen. An example of this is using
ones identical, math genius, twin to take the Math 100 examination. Lastly, manipulating a
corrected examination, or changing the c to d, or a to d is forbidden.
Upon mentioning these, it seems like this 2012 Code of Student Conduct is the dream
this further uplifts the honor and excellence which this school promotes. However, right now,
most of us must know someone who copied answers in an assignment, and used gadgets to
pass an exam that are, by the way, still here in the university. How many of those people, which
graduated from this university, cheated just to pass a course, or plagiarized but was given a 5.0
instead of suspension or expulsion?
The 2012 Code of Student Conduct is just as too good to be true as me having a 1.0
grade in Cell Biology under Sir Ronan Baculi. There are still students cheating, even right
now, just because no proper investigation is done when these people are caught.