Professor Co-authors Article in BusinessWeek

Tim West, an associate professor of accounting at University of Arkansas’ Walton College of Business, helped author an article in an upcoming issue of Business and Professional Ethics Journal, according to a brief in BusinessWeek.

West and two Iowa State University professors wrote about cheating students. West administered a take-home test at an unnamed university, unaware that another professor had posted a key to the test on the Web, then he found out about 66 percent of the students used the key.

According to BusinessWeek, West polled the students. Some of them said they weren’t sure if what they did was wrong, others blamed West for giving a test with available answers. Others said they’d learned a lesson. Some even said “everyone cheats” and that’s “how business operates.”

We haven’t been able to talk with West to find out if he’s found more ethical students in the backyard of Don Soderquist, former chief operating officer of Wal-Mart and founder of the Soderquist Center for Leadership and Ethics.