About cheating in college

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First of all, I want to say that I went to college and never cheated, in fact I worked really hard for my grades and would have had a low opionion of anyone who did cheat.

The thing is, I may be somewhat of a hypocrit. Recently a woman approached me and asked if I would do several drawings for her for a "presentation" she had to do. She wouldn't elaborate on what that "presentation" was, although I had a sneaking suspicion that it was a drawing project for a college class. When I asked her if that was what it was for, she denied it.

My budget has been pretty tight, to say the least, so I said I would do it. Today this lady picked up the drawings (and paid me in cash) and took them to the local framer to be mounted. It was at this time that I discovered that it was indeed a school project I was doing for her. She still doesn't know that I know that, however.

She was very happy with my work and told me that she needed just three more drawings to complete her "presentation". She prepaid me for the drawings before I had my suspicions confirmed about her intent. Now I have to complete the last three drawings while I question my own values. The money is already spent on bills and rent by the way.

So am I cheating or am I just employed?

 

If the money's already spent, there's not much you can do. If you still had it, I'd say give it back and refuse to do the work. But if you don't complete the work now, you'll have more of a mess on your hands than it's worth. But, hopefully, lesson learned---follow your instincts. From your post, it was clear you suspected something amiss quite early on. I would have stopped it right then and there.

 

I would say that you are employed. Since you contracted the job it would be immoral to go back on your word, it seems simpler to report her if you feel bad about this.

 

It is the person commissing the work and thus cheating that is shooting herself in the foot. I have never understood why people would go through the bother of cheating on that level? Dont they realize that if they have cheated their way through their education and not learned what they are supposed to learn that their diplomas are worth nada as they are not able to do the job that the diploma say they can? Employeers are going to notice that sooner or later. It is her own life she is ruining, let her do it. If you hadnt done it she would have gone to someone else and you needed the money so dont feel guilty.

 

Adding on to joacqin's post:
I wonder what she will think when she the final exams are up, and she has to either make another painting or explain in depth about the paintings she(Dragonfly) has made. As joacqin said, she's shooting herself in her foot.

 

I would say that that you were hired to create some paintings and what your patron does with them is not your problem. While I would consider it unethical to encourage cheating by approaching college students and offering to do their school projects, I really don't think you should consider yourself under any moral obligation to screen your customers to ensure that they are not going to pass your work off as their own.

 

It's not your problem. What goes around comes around, and she is gonna get a faceful of **** pretty soon.

 

Agreeing with what's already been said. It's not cheating on your part because you're just getting hired and it'll be the college student's problem in real life because of course, the point of college is to learn and if you're going to take an art class. . . In any case extending off of what Blackthorne said, both my sister, my Mom, and even my grandfather are artists and they all sign their artworks (especially paintings) in a little unobtrusive way. If you really don't want her to get away with cheating it might be possible to in some way put your signature in but in such a manner that she won't notice until it's too late. (And then her teacher would have to wonder what's up with the signature) Devious and subtle. I like tripping people up. Especially when they deserve it -- like cheaters, I hate cheaters.

 

Hmm. Interesting thoughts here. If pictures are being drawn, well, big deal, someone could want pictures for any number of reasons. Given that you had suspicions but no solid proof when you took the commission, you are in the clear, but I myself would never again do more work for this person. I mean, I could write essays for people "not knowing they would use it for cheating" but that would look pretty weak under scrutiny. Once you know your work will be used immorally, you should not do it, even if the other person is the one in the wrong.

 

I didn't go to a college, because we don't have any here. It was long elementary followed by highschool (age 15-19) and then university.

In highschool we 'cooperated'. Our instruction relied on having us do tons of homework and study for exams while classes were mostly hardly relevant. It was also impossible to write tests and exams well basing on what teachers said and on what they said they would require. So we studied completely on our own, wrote those ridiculous assignments costing lots of effort, time and money just to say we have it and not get a penal E for not having done it.

Consequently, we learnt to cooperate. You know, quite a good teamwork. I was the guy doing English, suddenly recalled homeworks, individual assignments for people and explaining things for tests, Peter was doing history summaries (for each class) and Latin vocabulary routinely (new vocabulary to each text, IIRC I did that myself 3-4 times in 4 years) and often had maths, Kate had geography and she and some other folk had maths every time, Eva had literature, Elisabeth had French etc etc. Computer Science was done by two people: John and I, each in a different group. Someone would bring the basic task, enabling you to get away without a penal E, to John or me surfing on the net, John or I would extend it into the A version and return to his surfing while the rest would be copying the diskette.

The system was developed and gradually set in stone (informally, of course) when we added up the time used to do all homeworks and learning for each day and it exceeded 24 minus time spent in school. Sleep time wasn't even included in the equation. From difficult and consummating tasks, it also extended to include the swapping of no-brainer silly homework considered waste of time (like 100 almost identical sentences for tense practice, 100 almost identical equations etc). There was no problem if someone had troubles and was forced to focus on one or more subjects, no problem if someone was depressed and unable to focus his mind, if someone had a party or just tried to catch up on sleep etc etc - no one was left without help. Of course, there were still several penal E's - some people would forget even to copy homework... or wouldn't care to copy it. Still, there was no abuse of others - the more one took, the more he gave back. Sometimes gifted people publicly known for copying mundane homeworks as a rule, those people were the ones spending hours explaining things or served as emergency for whole groups. Those able to work systematically, the unfailing ones that always had notes taken, vocabulary and summaries done, those were always substituted by someone who felt like working at the moment, protected from sudden extra work, class work, ad hoc works etc. Socially minded and active people (organising parties etc) always got a hand with school things, and were in special grace of PR department.

The said PR department specialised in getting the unfortunate out of trouble and advocating those being told off in public for real or imaginated violations (personal specialty, now I'm a law student, hehe), putting off tests, raising final marks, calling people outside to do whatever instead of sitting in class (my personal record is getting six people for two weeks to some computer job that could have been done, and IIRC was done, in half an hour by myself), obtaining pardons, leeways and additional terms for whole class and individuals alike, getting away with violations and all sorts of informal backstage deals (house specialty). Those were genuinely liked and respected by almost all and had quite special rights (even with teachers who sometimes also needed our PR ). However, no one sane could do this job all the time and it did make you enemies and it was simply asking for it, let alone the constant parlay atmosphere and being on the top of more black lists than one knew of (hint: guess who got screwed first), so we had rotations. That's why I was the only fulltime member (special thanks to the cafe)... which is why I didn't have any E for lack of homework

Tests were different. Where the school was playing nice - ie no reducing test time to 20 minutes from 45 when you said that the limit of full hour tests for that week had been exhausted, no 'special' questions, every question being taken from the manual or from what the teacher said in class etc, nothing from material scheduled on next week etc, the test wasn't right after a week long trip, then there was practically no cheating. However, where there was mobbing, intimidating, or genuine joyous carefreeness - then we helped ourselves: books and neighbourhood coooperation (flying cards rarely since they were easy evidence). Let me again shamelessly quote myself: 'Yes, madam. So soon as I finish copying this sentence.' (she told me to close the manual).

 

Thank you for your input in this matter. I agree that this woman is shooting herself in the foot. She admitted to me that she did not know how to draw. I am still suprised that someone would spend a lot of money to go and learn something and then not actually bother doing the work.

I've come to the decision that if she offers me more work, and I have the time, I will take it. It may not be morally correct, but it is work that can help me pay off my own student loan. I do imagine though that the more complex the presentation, the higher the fee.

I actually didn't sign my work this time (call it intuition) however my drawing style is my signature. It cannot be forged. I am certain that when she decides to complete her own drawings next time, the differences will be outstanding. If she finishes the course I will be surprised.

 

I'd finish the drawings then screw her over by saying you didn't now at the time, its gotta be fun to watch, well for me anyways.

 

Well, just an alternate thought here. College is suppose to prepare you for the real world, right? Well, in the real world, people contract other people out to complete projects, draw pictures for presentations, etc. A resourceful and successful person knows what their limitations are and what they can and cannot do. This woman apparently knew she could not produce a drawing and thus found someone who could. She paid the person for it. Pretty resourceful if you ask me. Just another look at it. not that that is exactly what I would agree is right or not.
Here is another question for Dragonfly. Were the drawings part of the grade. Maybe the major part of the grade was on content. Not the quality of the drawings themselves.

 

The general assumption is that you go to colledge to learn to do what you currently can not.

 

Elios, actually I believe the class is called drawing and presentation, so yes, the drawings are part of the grade (the presentation part she has hired a framer to do)