The consequences of cheating could be made much more severe.

I am troubled by this argument because it suggests people have no ethical core. If that is true then we are going to have problems with them regardless.

When we talk about an ethical core, that sort of behavior exists between individuals. People in a family, or people who are friends, hopefully will and typically do adjust their behavior according to some sense of ethics. When we put people into a classroom, however, we’re implicitly putting them into competition with their peers for a limited set of opportunities that determine the extent to which their basic human needs, and those of their family, will be met in the future. Let me ask you, what is it about one’s ability to perform well in some arbitrary social role that makes them more entitled to their needs being met than another who lacks that particular ability? If you wanted to argue that a cheater is behaving unethically, you’d need to show that they do, in a moral and ethical sense, deserve less than their peers.

"Deserve" is a subjective and poorly defined concept. They agree to the evaluation criteria when they take the course. They are supposed to actually learn the material. Everything else in your argument is sophistry.

You argued the similarly subjective and poorly defined notion that students who cheat must lack an ethical core, which is why I decided to discuss fuzzy things like ethics rather than the obvious fact that they signed an academic dishonesty agreement. Why is violation of said agreement something that I should view with disdain/why does it say anything about the ethical core of the student?

I think if you asked people who cheat if it was ethically wrong, they would admit it cheating is indeed unethical.

But we are really great about rationalizing away ethical issues. I suspect is a good grade is worth more than a personal sense of ethics.

As much as a med school wants ethical students, they want students with 4.0s more.

Then we are lost. Someone willing to cheat to get good grades will cheat in many other ways.

Perhaps, but I don't think that's actually true.

Cheating in school is just an easier or more assured way to get a better result. When you find a way to do things better in non-academic settings, you get rewarded.

Things that are truly unfair are regulated and tested for with steep penalties.

I think most people would admit the academy is a bizarre place with rules that don't really apply in other contexts. In school it matters that _you_ came up with a solution. In most other contexts, it just matters that you have a solution.