Ethics and College Student Life: A Case Study Approach (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Kenneth A. Strike (Author), Pamela A. Moss (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130931012 | ISBN-13: 978-0130931016 | Publication Date: March 30, 2002 | Edition: 2

This unique hands-on guide uses a highly effective case approach to explore specific, reality-based examples of the complex, controversial, and difficult ethical issues that students face on college campuses today—e.g., plagiarism, racism and hate speech, date rape, alcohol abuse. Then, through thought-provoking questions and critical discussions, prods readers to explore their own positions, notions, and opinions, and to justify their stances. It shows them how five important ethical principles can be used to think through these problems and to solve them in ethical dialogues. Academic Integrity, Grading, and Cheating. Tolerance, Diversity, and Hate Speech. Privacy and Dialogue. Loyalty, Friendship, and Community. Sex, Relationships, and Power. Drinking and Living the Good Life. On Getting a Life. Religion, Relativism, and Dialogue. For college students and anyone interested in ethics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The case studies are effective, easy to read, and cover a wide range of topics with which college students grapple.  Students get to practice theory with real life examples."

-- Kathryn Jarvis, Auburn University

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Ethics and College Student Life uses engaging case studies of common ethical dilemmas facing college students to teach critical thinking and basic ethics. It shows students how five important ethical principles can be used to think through problems and solve them in dialogues.

Chapters are devoted to issues critical to today's students, such as diversity, sex, cheating, privacy, and drinking, and chapters include:

• a lead case, questions, and discussion
• examples of actual college and university codes
• 8- 10 short additional cases with questions
• background readings and additional materials

This text can be used across the curriculum to give students hands-on opportunities for ethical problem solving.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 2 edition (March 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130931012
• ISBN-13: 978-0130931016
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,190,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Thumbs Up, April 7, 2010

By 

R. R. Acampora (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ethics and College Student Life: A Case Study Approach (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

The negative grad student is way too steeped in high-theory and/or elite-level student body. If you teach average students at a mid-level university/college, this is the text for you. It also speaks to aspects of their actual day-to-day lives, rather than the usual applied ethics hit-parade of controversial/media-hyped "social issues".

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars See Spot. See Spot run. Go, Spot, go! See Spot cheat on exam. No, Spot, no!, March 17, 2008

By 

Christine E. Nattrass (New Haven, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ethics and College Student Life: A Case Study Approach (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

I bought this book because, as a grad student and aspiring academic, I hoped for an intelligent discussion of the various subtle and ambiguous ethical situations that occur in academia every day. I was hoping to get a nuanced discussion than most of what happens on campuses, having just recently taken a mandatory ethics test that was predictable and absurdly rigid. Instead, I got this book, which is apparently intended to be a college text but isn't even written at a college level.

I think the writing is what irritates me most. The diction is incredibly simple; as an example, "Ruth was caught buying a term paper from Ever-Ready Student Services, an organization that writes papers and take-home exams for college students in exchange for cash." (pg. 118) That's about as complex as the sentence structure - or indeed, any of the scenarios - in this book get. That, coupled with the fact that most of the examples are rather simple and straight-forward, makes it very difficult to get anything out of this book. It's also really irritating to read since this feels like it was written by an eighth grader.

Nearly everything in this book is a scenario followed by questions, with little or no discussion of the issues. It leaves the impression that all opinions are equally valid, and that's just not true. It doesn't get at the heart of what I think is a pretty major issue, that faculty and students simply have different understandings of the expectations in a class. It also doesn't get at a less discussed problem, that faculty don't always agree on what is cheating and what is not. In graduate school, I had one class where the professor was shocked and appalled to learn that some students had been looking up answers to homework problems on the internet and another (in the same department) who nonchalantly informed some students privately - but not the whole class - that he expected them to check their answers with solutions on the internet. This book would leave neither the student nor the teacher more prepared to to address this situation. Rather it would affirm that all have valid opinions.

This book has no subtlety and doesn't address realistic situations. We all know that buying or copying a paper is wrong. Is it wrong to look at other papers, which may be found on the internet? To ask a friend what he or she had done for the same assignment? What if it's a math or physics problem that has a defined answer? If students are allowed to work together on homework, when does team work become cheating? What rights does a student accused of cheating have? Do faculty always behave ethically when dealing with students accused of cheating? (In my experience, this often isn't true - once the accusation is made, the student is assumed to be guilty.) Most cases are not straight forward, and, having been a graduate teaching assistant and having proctored many exams, I can tell you most cases where a teacher suspects cheating have no hard proof. This doesn't prepare anyone for these subtleties.

Perhaps most importantly, this book doesn't discuss how to avoid these problems in the first place, which is what we'd all like.

So don't waste your money on this, and if you're a student in a class which requires this book, perhaps you'd be better off taking underwater basket weaving.