Integrity is defined as the honesty and truthfulness of one's actions.1 Like most abstract nouns, however, it is nearly impossible to confine the weight carried by the word "integrity" to a sentence, an article or even a thesis. It's built up over a lifetime.2
As Dartmouth students, we are expected to uphold a certain level of integrity. On the surface, nearly all of us do. You almost never see students peeking at the test next to them or asking someone who's already taken a course what they should focus on while studying for the midterm. When people are actively monitoring what you do, your actions become more a matter of reputation than personal integrity. It was the late John Wooden who wrote in his autobiography that, "The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching."3
This distinction between academic integrity and reputation is one that we note on a daily basis. Simply put, many things that compromise our integrity don't compromise our reputation.4 If you knew that guesstimating a source in your footnotes would lead to being Parkhursted, you obviously wouldn't do it.5 If copying one answer off a friend's problem set would immediately cause you to be kicked off campus for four terms and place a near-permanent blemish on your reputation, eight out of 10 students would steer clear of slacking. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Yet in reality, these actions that clearly compromise our integrity usually have no impact on our reputation.6
Being able to easily get away with so-called "minor" cheating creates a disconnect between our personal sense of integrity and our reputation. Students often place a premium on their reputation, even at the expense of integrity. This widely accepted dichotomy between the internal and external senses of self constructs an altered view of what is admissible.7 We all know that people do things behind closed doors that they wouldn't do in public.8 Nevertheless, even decisions made when no one is watching can comprise one's character.9
In the end, it remains a personal choice to uphold your integrity. Just think of how easy it is to maintain a great outward reputation while taking the easy way out as long as you don't get caught.
Then again, I'll leave you with the story of Patrick Smith, a 2006 graduate of Davidson College. The night before he was slated to graduate, he confessed to cheating on an exam at the end of junior Fall, forfeiting two years of credits. He graduated two years later, the commencement speaker and valedictorian.10 Reach for the stars.11
1 Lucaites, John Louis; (1999). Contemporary Rhetorical Theory. Guilford Press. pp. 92.a
a First source on Wikipedia entry for "Integrity."
2 Comment by that kid who always knows what he's talking about in class.
3 Quote on back of guy's shirt at table in front of me on 3FB.
4 Speech by national fraternity representative at Dartmouth chapter meeting.
5 Vague notion of Dartmouth's honor code.
6 Churchill speech I think I watched in high school history class but am now packaging as my own views.
7 Misinterpreted Marxist view modified with the thesaurus on my Mac dashboard.
8 Girls Gone Wild VII.
9 Earlier John Wooden quote now being passed off as my own ideas.
10 Story I vaguely remember from my tour of Davidson.
11 This entire article was first used as an essay for in Philosophy 23: Ideas I Don't Understand.
