Welcome to Scrutiny College

The police chief of Dubai recently announced the emirate’s plans to place security cameras “everywhere.” Although 25,000 security cameras are already up and running in Dubai, apparently there are still too many dark alleys where you can escape from the electronic gaze. 

But what does constant surveillance do to our morality? Emrys Westacott explores that question in this essay and decides that it’s complicated (somehow philosophers rarely think things are simple). 

The example below caught my attention: 

For instance, imagine you are visiting two colleges. At Scrutiny College, the guide proudly points out that each examination room is equipped with several cameras, all linked to a central monitoring station. Electronic jammers can be activated to prevent examinees from using cell phones or Blackberries. The IT department writes its own cutting-edge plagiarism-detection software. And there is zero tolerance for academic dishonesty: one strike and you’re out on your ear. As a result, says the guide, there is less cheating at Scrutiny than on any other campus in the country. Students quickly see that cheating is a mug’s game, and after a while no-one even considers it.

By contrast, Probity College operates on a straightforward honour system. Students sign an integrity pledge at the beginning of each academic year. At Probity, professors commonly assign take-home exams, and leave rooms full of test takers unproctored. Nor does anyone bother with plagiarism-detecting software such as Turnitin.com. The default assumption is that students can be trusted not to cheat.

Which college would you prefer to attend? Which would you recommend to your own kids?

Personally, I would encourage my kid to attend Forbearance University. It’s way cheaper than Probity.