The fundamental goal of a university should be to help its students succeed and reach their full potential. An environment that places limitations on the ability to access information leads to the acceptance of mediocrity (Yang -). This idea contrasts sharply with the goal of a university. Accessibility to information and knowledge go hand in hand. Universities must inspire their students to reach new levels of understanding, and providing full access to information will provide students with the means to generate new ideas. Technology and the introduction of the Internet has made the ability to share, view, and create intellectual property widely accessible. Dave Tomar, author of the chapter “Use Me” from his book The Shadow Scholar, claims
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Students are viewed as a cog in the university machine whose sole purpose is to keep the university afloat. Any environment that prevents one from achieving their best is not conducive to the generation of new ideas. When the university does not respect its students’ ambitions to reach their full potential, the students begin to question their ability to do so. This lack of confidence can lead to cheating. Dave Tomar discusses a time when a professor found one-third of his students “cheating” on an exam (Tomar 81). The professor blamed the students. Tomar, however, asserts that it was the university’s fault for “failing to create a ‘community devoted to learning’” (Tomar 81). Tomar claims that the reason for the cheating was due to the ease of access to information. However, Tomar fails to discuss the students’ motivations for using the test bank. The cheating did not occur because of the easy availability of information; instead, it happened because the university’s limitations caused the students to lose confidence in their abilities. What would motivate a student to do well in a university where the university does not care about their success? A university that places limitations and forces its students to succumb to mediocrity is not a university that respects its students or its own fundamental
Students are viewed as a cog in the university machine whose sole purpose is to keep the university afloat. Any environment that prevents one from achieving their best is not conducive to the generation of new ideas. When the university does not respect its students’ ambitions to reach their full potential, the students begin to question their ability to do so. This lack of confidence can lead to cheating. Dave Tomar discusses a time when a professor found one-third of his students “cheating” on an exam (Tomar 81). The professor blamed the students. Tomar, however, asserts that it was the university’s fault for “failing to create a ‘community devoted to learning’” (Tomar 81). Tomar claims that the reason for the cheating was due to the ease of access to information. However, Tomar fails to discuss the students’ motivations for using the test bank. The cheating did not occur because of the easy availability of information; instead, it happened because the university’s limitations caused the students to lose confidence in their abilities. What would motivate a student to do well in a university where the university does not care about their success? A university that places limitations and forces its students to succumb to mediocrity is not a university that respects its students or its own fundamental