Good Morning America Covers UCF Cheating Scandal on National News
Culture, News, UCF Administration — By Staff on November 10, 2010 at 1:07 pmUPDATE: Students Blame Professor’s ‘Laziness’ For Sparking Controversy
Read the full story on this major update in the UCF cheating scandal here.
Prof. tells ABC: Cheating was ‘like a knife through the heart’
The cheating scandal rocking UCF’s College of Business has officially made national network news.
ABC’s Good Morning America sent a correspondent to Orlando to give a live report to anchors George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts, who did not hide their outrage over the cheating.
ABC Anchor George Stephanopoulos
“We’re going to turn to just a maddening story out of Florida,” Stephanopoulos said when setting up the story. “A college professor there says he’s disgusted and disillusioned after he discovered with some detective work that fully one-third of 600 students in his business course had cheated on the midterm — 200 students!”
That’s when Stephanopoulos tossed to ABC news correspondent Yunji de Nies, who appeared live via satellite outside Millican Hall, with the sound of UCF’s iconic Reflecting Pond able to be heard in the background. The biggest new piece of information revealed her report was that 75 percent of the suspected cheaters have come forward through email or by admitting the behavior in person.
Professor Richard Quinn broke his silence on the cheating scandal by giving ABC News his first interview. And if you thought he was exaggerating when he first told his class he was “physically ill, absolutely disgusted” and “completely disillusioned” by their behavior — the interview showed he wasn’t.
“This was just like a knife through the heart,” Quinn said, during an emotional interview with de Nies.
Some students sided with Quinn, and told ABC News there’s no need to send even more unethical people into the business world. But others said Quinn was making a mountain out of a molehill.
RAW VIDEO: QUINN SCOLDING STUDENTS FOR CHEATING
Rumors that a student stole a copy of the test were debunked by a report in the University of Wisconsin’s student newspaper stating a student purchased the exam answers online from the textbook publisher test bank. The Badger Herald quoted UCF Associate Dean of Academic Programs and Technology Taylor Ellis who also said, “There was no breach of security at the school.”
Students commenting on KnightNews.com have suggested it was just a practice test circulated students got on the publisher’s website, but KnightNews.com was unable to reach anyone at the publishing company to find out more details on what exactly was accessed.
UCF student Konstantin Ravvin told ABC News he thought UCF’s so-called cheating scandal had been blown out of proportion.
“This is college, everyone cheats. Everyone cheats in life in general,” Ravvin told ABC News. “I just think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in this testing lab who hasn’t cheated on an exam. They’re making a witch hunt out of absolutely nothing, as if they want to teach us some sort of moral lesson.”
But de Nies said, “A lesson in morals is precisely what Professor Quinn is hoping his students take away.”
“If they’re going to learn one thing coming out of a university, if they learn nothing else, they’re going to learn dignity and honor and the value of ethics and honesty,” Quinn told ABC News.
When de Nies finished her report, the anchors made it clear they were bothered by Ravvin’s comments on the situation.
“Oh man, that new definition — everyone does it,” Stephanopoulos said, “I couldn’t believe that student!”
Neither could his co-anchor.
“Everyone cheats, everyone cheats in life?” Roberts said. “Maybe he’s meaning people cut corners here and there, but to say it so blatantly, I’m sure his parents…”
Stephanopoulos then interrupted Roberts to share more of his disappointment. “And to suggest it’s all OK!” he said.
Roberts finished up her thoughts on Ravvin’s by declaring, “That’s a real problem there.”
The segment on one of America’s top-rated morning news shows lasted more than three minutes, and aired across the entire country. The students have until midnight tonight to retake their exams.
KnightNews.com is continuing to follow this major, national story, and will post more updates when we can.
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67 Comments
When i was in college I found my self going to the books websites and doing the practice quizzes and practice questions. It is very hard not to do it since every book used by college professors contain a website with this resources available. It is a shame that professors go the easy way and copy test from the publishers and then they are surprised why people “cheat”. In my opinion this is not cheating, it is simply a way of looking for other resources to study for a test. If the questions from your study guide are found in the test, that just means you are lucky to have found the correct study guide. And professors need to learn how to write their own exams to prevent this from happening.
Wow, I’m sorry that this made the national news! This incident…and this media coverage will devalue the degree of countless current and future UCF graduates! I go to FGCU, and Florida is a state of young public universities (for the most part). Schools like FAU, UCF, UNF, UWF, FIU and FGCU are doing their best to improve and put themselves on the map. This is just super sad!
I have never, ever cheated…my entire life from kindergarten until now (I’m in graduate school). I do not condone it at all. But I also have not been put in a position where I felt so much was hanging in the balance. I’m a good student…pretty smart. I’ve never had to study too hard to get by. I know this is not the case with every student in college. In fact, there are now students in college who really shouldn’t have even been given a high school diploma! But whatever. With such great pressure to get a college degree…and the increasing competitiveness of graduate school…I guess the pressure is just too much for a lot of students to bear.
I went to college in the 90s. Today it is unbelievably easier to cheat and lie your way through college! Yes, we had the internet back in the 90s….but no Wikipedia, no online textbooks, no website rating professors, etc. It is way too easy to ‘cut and paste’ your way through college! It’s becoming a running joke academically…just like high school became.
Not that graduate school is so different. There is this vibe in many graduate programs where it’s like “Ok, I’ve been accepted….I’ve paid my tuition, now where’s my degree?” In addition to being a graduate student I also work at a university in a graduate department. The level of excuses and sense of entitlement is unreal. UCF is not the only place with this problem. This is a chronic issue among college students today and no one can really escape it!
To Jeff
Thank you for understanding.
But now they chew on it and on him And Konstantin did not cheat!
People wrote so many hatefull things to Konstantin,even threats
Some of them put his name on the Graig list,wishing him the worst in the future (they wrote-you have to be exterminated-)
Scary,realy scary and I really concern about his safety,his future
The media is biased. This man’s interview was manipulated and distorted for the media’s best interest to make a point. You guys of all people should know that the Media is biased and all of you are just puppets of social media propaganda. if anything it is YOUUUU, who is reading this, that is being cheated.
Good day.
biased news, find the source, ask him what he said, and then make your assumptions, you can’t trust the news.
I bet Konstantin is a actually a USF student in disguise trying to make our school look bad!
Moral arguments aside, what amuses me is that he said this on national television. At this point in his life, he’s probably ready to head into the labor market and start looking for a job. Every potential employer who saw this or heard of it is going to make a note not to hire this guy.
Nice.
I’m very offended by what Roberts said “this is college, everyone cheats.” I’m a college student and I have never cheated. They should have to retake the test.
FAU STUDENT……WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
RAVVIN….YOU ARE DISGUSTING!
I just added these sentences to my post:
“One kind of cheating (if using a pre-fab exam is cheating) doesn’t legitimize another. Two wrongs (if using a pre-fab exam is wrong) don’t make a right.”
I don’t see the use of a pre-fab exam as making it okay to cheat on that exam. I can see though why you might have thought that I was implying just that.
The ABC interview was clearly looking for some form of opposition and Konstantine gave it to them even though it might have been edited or taken out of context. Give the guy a break, we all have said stupid things in our past that will haunt us eventually. For him it is going to be sooner rather than later.
I think was impressed me most about this scandal is not how 200 students managed to cheat and get caught but how the prof Quinn handled it. The fact that this made national news adds to the pressure that the cheaters in the class will be found and shamed. He was kind enough to give the cheaters a second chance. For someone that has worked really hard for the grades they got, I don’t this was not a harsh enough punishment. There was a poll on this this morning asking this http://my-take.com/poll/should-the-cheating-students-get-a-harsher-punishment The students should be grateful that Prof. Quinn taught them a lesson that they will never forget.
Because the answers to the exam were provided online for students as well as teachers to access. The teacher should have been more responsible to make up his own exams if he wanted to avoid the risk of his students turning to the internet to seek answers. The answers were accessible to everyone! The students cheated, the teacher cheated, hence like you said, “(Everyone Cheats)”. You just readdressed Mr. Ravvins point.
I’m puzzled as to why Jonah (the first commenter) thinks my post redeems Mr. Ravvin.
Here comes redemption for Kons:
http://mleddy.blogspot.com/2010/11/is-college-everyone-cheats.html
I’m sorry to say, but everyone does cheat. No matter what the degree of cheating it is, every single person does it in one way or another. The students found a way to get the test. In the world we are supposed to find ways to get what we need in order to succeed. Instead of making up his own exam the professor cheated UCF by buying an exam online. If the professor was lazy enough to buy the test online, why shouldn’t the students be allowed to be lazy and buy the answers online? It’s a system, the professor decided to do what he did, so the students found a way to work the professor. That’s how life is.
To “I Have More Money..” If you really do have more money and are in a position to hire Mr. Ravvin, by all means extend an offer to him. Based on your comments, a man of his caliber would be a perfect fit in your business model and culture. Perhaps the bigger lesson for all of us in academia is to find more rigorous methods to assess comprehension and to look at how we manage courses with hundreds of students. In our rush to educate as many students as possible, have we opened the doors too wide.
Wow. Talk about a trashy college.
Haha, this is hilarious!
I’ll hire Konstantin right now! He tells it how it is, and I can appreciate a person with the balls to do it on national TV. So what if people cheat in college? It’s not like they teach you anything you really need in life. Nearly all jobs make you learn THEIR way of doing things, thus negating all that “education” and the near worthless Bachelors degree your college gave you. It’s a joke really.
If Konstantin applies at my company he’s hired!
Way to go, Professor! Ethics and honesty are NOT virtues to be shrugged off with such disregard, as that misguided student suggested. The world is what we make of it – he plans to make his part of it untrustworthy – I hope, for his sake and others, that he rethinks his posision. If not, he will be lost…along with others who agree with him.
UCF was humiliated well before this Ravvin kid opened his mouth. I’m not saying cheating is okay, but it is obviously a pretty common issue or the super secure big brother anti-cheating lab wouldn’t exist, would it?
Konstantine Ravvin should be ashamed. UCF has been humiliated.
So, we can go back and forth about praising or smashing this Ravvin guy. Suggestions such as, “Wow, I really admire his will to say it straight.” Or, “Oh no, he is demeaning the entire premise of what education is about.” People who cheat in life will get theirs. And ultimately, this guy is beyond moronic to go on national news and give his opinion in this manner. “Hey guys, everyone is doing meth over here, so give me a needle….really, it’s okay.” I really hope he doesn’t procreate.
Where can I see a link of where to buy this practice test online? Post the link here and the news will do it I’m sure!
The media hasn’t said anything about how the PUBLISHERS have sold the test bank to ANYONE online… Also the professor said he WRITES HIS OWN TESTS… maybe the professor should take this ethics class too…
Konstantin was only saying what everyone else lives by. Thinking otherwise is simply naive. True, it also may be naive to think that you can actually say something like this to a society in self-denial about it.
Konstantin has just baked his business career … too bad … but he’s a smart-ass
Must be a slow news day if this made national news…
the clip was not edited you can see that very clearly. he also claimed to be in the class that cheated and he is not. in addition to being an idiot, konstantin is also a liar.
Dear FAU Student,
It seems that Konstantin is not the only dumb person on the discussion table. I like how you instantaneously make an assumption that I am rich and preppy. To answer your question, I am NOT ashamed of myself and I DID NOT cheat on the exams. I am on financial aid, who did not have a competitive edge on academics over other students who did not get in here. So stop making assumptions and stop making fool of yourself.
Best,
A student of Harvard 2013
So apparently theyre investigating the professor now cuz he told the students he makes his own tests when he really gets them from the test bank.
Students-apparently cheated
ABC news- apparently cheated this kid out of context
Professor-cheated his students with the wrong information.
Everyone did cheat, wow
I appreciate Konstantin Ravvin giving his views on cheating. I’ll be sure to look out for his name coming across my desk so I can immediately toss anything he may send to me into the trash.
Konstatin Ravvin is sad and pathetic. He is also going to be unemployed for a very long time. Even if he does get a job I will boycott the Taco Bell that is foolish enough to hire him.
Regardless of being quoted out of context or not, supposedly tech-savvy student such as Ravvin should know better. I hope UCF revokes his credits entirely. No degree should be granted to him. Employers will research his name and find this. Yep, just the kind of employee I want in my company. NOT
go take some adderall and suck off your frat brothers you homo
Sad fact: even if Mr. Ravvin aces the exam, his future is *over*. No grad program will want him associated with them. No business will hire him. Imagine the PR nightmares alone for anyone who would give this guy a job – would you want your potential clients digging up that guy’s video comments?
Nope, Mr. Ravvin just ended his business career, on national television. Instant karma. What a fool.
Harvard Student… sorry buddy but not everyone has rich parents to send them to harvard you douche. You know you have cheated or used a practice test to help you. be ashamed? if you have a competitive advantage in anything in life you are going to take it, as long as its not hurting anyone. A college degree is bullshit anyway, its just a piece of paper saying you learned something. Most careers will have their own training, and the degree just says you have spent four years dedicating that time to earn it, so the employer knows you have some abilities. Who cares how you get that degree, just get it. Why don’t you go play polo with some of your rich frat brothers that you suck off every night you homo.
I really want to meet and talk with this Konstantin guy. So you think “everyone cheats” in college and in life? I wonder how dumb you have to be to make a statement like that. Now we clearly know what SOMEONE was cheating the entire time. UCF should seriously be ashamed of having students like him in campus.
K-dog always telling it like it is. He just says what everyone else is thinking
Hope he aces that exam
Shame on you Konstantin Ravvin.
You should know better. I’m
sorry for your parents.
Poor Konie, the funny thing is. He showed me his test results from the first exam: he got a low C, so i definitely dont think he cheated
We have a lot of issues w/ this going around nowadays, teachers put in no effort into creating these exams, they are just drawn from a test bank, no one ever updates them.
me thinks it was jsut a matter of time before people got caught, Konie is cynical but hes got a point
It’s all about who you know, apparently the kids that didn’t get the test need to get more friends.
P.S. You don’t make friends by dropping off the key in the teacher’s box.
Remember what a great philosopher once said:
I never nark’d on nobody. -Vin Diesel (Fast & Furious)
What the hell? All these kids should be kicked out for sheer stupidity. I was about to take my Art History test yesterday and my teacher told us about this. He told us they knew something was up when every one got the same exact grade. if you’re going to cheat, which I don’t see why because college isn’t really that hard in the first two years, at least be smart about it. All these kids should be kicked out so maybe we’d open up some parking spaces haha. I an also angry about the comment Konstantin Ravvin made. He may have been “taken out of Context” or “being sarcastic” but you have to know that whatever you say to the media is ammunition against you. Now that he has said such an incorrect statement, we will all be looked at as cheaters regardless.
heidi.fleissner@siemens.com
Heidi is a press officer from Siemens… which is where our buddy Konstantin works when he’s not shortcutting his way to a business degree.
Should I send her this link?
Good luck Konstantin with your upcoming job hunts. Realize that every employer uses the internet to screen potential employees – your attitude about cheating (and stupidity airing it on Good Morning America) will do you nothing but harm in the real world. Those 15 seconds of fame are going to cost you…
Konstantin, I absolutely agree that you have just devalued every student’s degree from UCF. You can believe that your name is now seared into the brains of not only every prof at your current school, but at others, too. We are like elephants when it comes to this sort of thing: we don’t forget.
If you ever have the bad fortune to transfer and then find yourself a student in my class, I will already know who you are. Congratulations.
He got taken out of context? The clip wasn’t edited:
“This is college. Everyone cheats. Everyone cheats in life in general. I just think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in this testing lab who hasn’t cheated on an exam. They’re making a witch hunt out of absolutely nothing — as if it were to teach us some kind of moral lesson.”
As a journalist and a filmmaker, I understand very well how things can be parsed and taken out of context. The above was his statement and I think it speaks pretty clearly for itself.
This kid really got quoted out of context, he’s a funny guy, he was just real pissed that they were rummaging around in front of the testing lab while everyone was studying, and he wanted to get interviewed too.
Although I have to admit, they cut and chopped that clip perfectly to make it sound terrible, that wasnt wat he was saying.
Still, media always does this
That is the problem of this new generation which does not seem to understand that cheating is wrong, that illegally downloading a song you did not pay for is theft.
I think the problem lies with the fact that in the United States, most universities are way too big to manage and professors have to rely on multiple choices tests all too often.
In many foreign countries, you actually have to write out every exam and trust me it is not easy!
Konstantin is an idiot and he devalued every degree at UCF. yet he wants to claim he was being sarcastic? Nice try. he realized how stupid what he said was and tried to hide behind the sarcasm excuse. UCF should kick him out, since he is so clearly against the school and practically admitting to cheating himself since you know, “everyone cheats”
At least Knightnews got some of the story right. They took Konstantine’s comments way out line and Konstantine even said in the interview “i don’t condone this cheating and i’m glad we get to take this test all over again because I got a bad grade”.
He was just complaining about the fact that professors use question banks for every exam and that they should be expecting a breach to happen sooner or later