Did the subject matter encourage the students to cheat? Are the students over the years influencing the subject matter?
In a case of widespread cheating, nearly half of the Harvard students who took a class identified as "Introduction to Congress" collaborated on the take-home final exam, expressly disallowed by the professor. Here are the creme de la creme of the academic student world, trying to get an easy A, and still feel the need to break the rules.
If the course was in business, I'm sure the general public wouldn't notice. But this is a course on the legislative body of our nation, a course studying the aspects of the law-making, rule-setting collection of individuals. In the midst of this framework, a lot of students thought they needed to cheat when the course turned out to be more difficult than they thought. Perhaps reading about congressmen and congresswomen who have escaped the throes of scandal inspired them. Perhaps reading about how many congresses faced difficult decisions regarding the budget, they realized that they could 'rewrite' the rules that were made and not have to face the consequences of the rules put before them.
Perhaps if this course has been easy for so long and yet inspires cheating, and if this course is taken by many people who aspire to political positions, perhaps Congress has been influenced by a cheating cadre of Ivy Leaguers.
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