University of Virginia Library

Mocking Education

A few weeks ago we received a display
advertisement from a company which sold
ready-made term papers for students. It was a
legitimate ad, and the company offered good
money for its inclusion in the newspaper.
After not-too-much soul searching, we refused
the ad.

We are generally opposed to restrictions on
our right to print whatever we believe to be in
the public interest. But there are occasions
when self-imposed restriction is in the
community interest, and as long as we are
running this newspaper, firms which sell term
papers or in any way openly encourage
violations of the Honor System, will meet
with our unequivocal hostility.

Now that there is reason to believe that one
or more of these enterprises may be peddling
their wares here, it is time to reflect upon
manufactured scholarship and what it means
to education. Why, one must query, would
endeavors like term paper manufacturers
thrive? What is their market?

To answer the last question first: Their
market is a large sector of the student
community across the nation which
represents a gross rejection of honesty. They
thrive on hypocrisy. Before we are accused of
putting on starched collars and powdered wigs
and reverting to 18th century moralizing, let
us look at this business from a more or less
singularly educational point of view.

It is difficult to fault the eager young
entrepreneurs, many of whom are fresh from
the college experience themselves, for
capitalizing on a money-making idea which is
perfectly legal in most places. They are selling
a product for which they have (through their
own experience) detected a considerably large
demand. As a business, it is perfectly
legitimate to sell items which people want
even if the item contributes to what some
may feel is a breakdown in morals or even a
danger to health. This is a fact which we must
begin to recognize in other areas as well, and
most of us can cite a fairly extensive list of
so-called vices which are either legal or which
we personally believe should be legal. So our
finger of blame points elsewhere.

Anyone who is old enough and in
possession of (enough) judgment to attend
college should be able to present some reason
for his being there. If a college education has
not deteriorated to a mere diploma-mill, we
should expect, even demand, that each person
feels something at least vaguely related to a
desire to learn for the sake of learning.
However, many people are in college for
perverse reasons like simply wanting a
diploma to get ahead or because their parents
expect them to go, or-God forbid!–for no
known reason at all.

This is both wrong and unfortunate. It is
wrong in that the purpose of universities has
been harmfully perverted as students go along
with reality because of the necessities
presented by a buyer's job market. It is
unfortunate because, in accepting the
competitive grind through the diploma mill,
students are tempted to use every means at
their disposal to make their four years as
painless as possible. Obviously, college can be
las painful without the burden of term
papers, so students nationwide are eager
buyers of the manufactured papers.

There are only two points of attack against
this proliferating business, and neither one
calls for the outlawing of the enterprises
themselves. The first is to dedicate ourselves
to restoring the ideal of the pursuit of truth
to education by encouraging liberal,
non-vocational curricula at major liberal arts
colleges and universities. There can be no
hope for restoring honest endeavors by
students until they know positively what the
college experience is intended to be. In the
case of the hypocritical pseudo-students who
will cheat anyway in order to acquire the
benefits of a university education with no
effort, the rest of the community (especially
at Virginia) should believe in and support an
Honor System which outlaws the use of the
term paper service.

The second attack that can be made on the
growing popularity of the service is to curtail
the all-too-common practice in at least this
University to assign at least one term paper in
nearly every class. Research has become in
some cases no more than a put-on for what
are really mindless extractions from a
library-full of esoteric claptrap uninteresting
to student and teacher alike. Too often a term
paper is merely a vehicle by which the teacher
can give a grade, and when the student knows
it, he does not give a damn what he researches
or writes as long as it is impressive in bulk and
baloney. Then the situation is ripe for a term
paper manufacturing company to step in and
create the product for a few dollars.

The catchword to the whole affair is
honesty. If assignments are honest attempts
to get students to think and to learn, fine.
Most honest students want to learn and will
do the paper willingly, if not eagerly. In the
same vein, we must be honest with ourselves
when defining our reasons for being here. If
we cannot seriously believe in education as it
is supposed to be, we are only inviting the
commercial exploitation of our hypocrisy.