Temple and Minnesota Report Cases As College Cheating Problem Grows

Investigations at two large Universities, Temple and Minnesota recently revealed serious outbreaks of cheating. 71 percent of a test group of students at Temple have admitted obtaining examination questions in advance, and four members of the Phi Delta Chi professional pharmacy fraternity at Minnesota were indefinitely suspended in connection with the theft of test answers for the mid-quarter examination.

The investigation at Minnesota was begun when several students in the pharmaceutical preparations class protested the "suspicious correlation" between high grades and membership in Phi Delta Chi fraternity. Students drew up a petition demanding an investigation, and although the petition was not presented Pharmacy Dean C. H. Rogers assured the student delegate that action would be taken.

The four men accused confessed to stealing the exam answers, and were suspended by the disciplinary action committee. Since the cheating seems to have been connected with membership in Phi Delta Chi, the fraternity has been placed under direct supervision of the student activities bureau.

At Temple University a survey by a student-faculty committee on academic discipline showed that 17 percent of an anonymous test group of 500 students had deliberately cheated during an examination through the use of "ponies' 'or the help of their neighbors.

Commenting on the survey the committee said, "while cheating remains a serious problem at Temple, there is no more cribbing here than at any large university."