America is in the midst of one of the worst economic environments since the Great Depression, and the fallout from dishonest individuals from Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue has been breathtaking. As a graduate student, the author has observed that many people easily begin rationalizing dishonest behavior early in their careers. He advocates that students and professors work together to devise a new ethics program that is mindful of the realities of the job market, adapting engineering logic to solve the cheating problem and teach academic honesty by illustrating how gaps in knowledge produce costly mistakes in industry. Professors should promote student involvement in shaping an ethical classroom environment and offer incentives for ethical solutions to classroom exercises. Most important, students should defend the value of their degrees and speak out against those who choose to dilute its significance by dishonestly cutting corners.