The Ethicist

Author: Amanda Greene

Right now Middlebury students feel as if events are happening at top speed. Campus looks as if it's part of a video that is endlessly playing on fast forward. The leisurely Thanksgiving meal already seems light years away and endless papers and exams have elicited the routine and dependable end-of-semester panic. How, with one week between Thanksgiving and the end of classes, are we ever going to finish all of our assignments?

We could start by not talking in the library. Imagine if students avoided the panicked calls to friends confirming (and complaining about) assignments, if we stopped calling our parents to boast about how little we've slept and if meals were arranged by silent text messages instead of through full volume conversations. The library would really be the silent place of study that its title denotes.

We could also slow down a bit in the dining halls. Imagine if students took time to sit down and eat instead of running through busy salad bar lines attempting to consume a salad on the go while reaching for a Panther cookie. I have a hunch that there would be a lot fewer meal-initiated collisions and that the dining hall staff would have a much easier time cleaning up after students. And besides, it might be nice to spend a bit of time during finals talking about something that isn't related to classes... break plans perhaps?

Lastly, the printers: Middlebury students should go into finals assuming that using campus printers is going to be a hassle. Plan to print at "off" hours and in "off" locations. Don't print that paper due at 5 pm at 4:45 because chances are that every printer in the library is going either be running on overdrive or out of commission. Anticipating printing difficulty will ease up the tension surrounding a paper's due dates and will ensure that students don't take each other out for printing a much needed 50 page e-reserve.

And now for this week's question:

Q: I'm currently enrolled in a class that my friend took last year. The class is notoriously difficult and my friend, who took meticulous notes on his laptop, lent me his binder. When I was flipping through his notes I stumbled upon last years final exam. I believe that the professor gave the students their exams back at the end of the semester and that he intended for my friend to keep his exam for future reference. Is it ethical for me to look at and study from last year's exam?

- Enticed-by -Exam

A: In this situation, you must confront your professor and ask her whether or not she intended for last year's exam to be available to future students. Perhaps your friend inadvertently kept the exam, or perhaps it was given to students with the assumption that they would not share it with others. You must explain the circumstances to your professor and let her or him choose the most appropriate course of action. Some professors create all new exams each year and encourage past exams to circulate, and in this instance your studying from old exams would not give you any advantage over your peers. Other professors recycle exam questions because they are difficult to write, and viewing last year's exam would violate the honor code and cause you to fail this years test. In situations such as these, it is always better be honest and upfront rather than to risk your integrity by unintentionally cheating.

Send submissions to amgreene@middlebury.edu.