"Is anybody truly honest?" As numerous accounts of cheating, lying, and fraud crowd our newspaper pages and TV news, it seems that honesty is a rapidly vanishing value. And the reports indicate that, around the globe, corruption and dishonesty are so widespread that the health and well-being of society are at risk. These reports include stories such as the students who faced criminal charges for selling in advance copies of a university final exam, a student who was expelled when he turned in a term paper with the purchase receipt for it still inside the pages, and a clerk who ran his own Christmas cards through the office postage meter and was found out when he sent one of the cards to the company treasurer! We have all read or heard accounts such as these, not to mention the stories of dishonesty amongst all layers of society as exemplified by consumers who steal and politicians who demand bribes. Travelers ripped off so many towels last year that it cost a major hotel chain $3 million to replace them. Especially troubling are the reports that dishonesty is increasing amongst student populations around the world.

But are these reports truly accurate or do they exaggerate the situation? Should we be alarmed by these accounts of falling standards of principles and morality? The assumption is that student dishonesty is more extensive now than it was 20, 50, 100 years ago. If so, what's behind it? If this is indeed the case, it's deeply troubling as today's students are tomorrow's leaders! It's possible that the desire to cheat is no greater than in the past. However, the critical importance of having a university degree may have increased the pressure to cheat in academic environments.