Now that the spring semester is in full swing, college students are hitting the books. Homework is being assigned every week and study groups are invading coffee shops. Quizzes and tests come with regularity. It's a good time to consider why students walk through the door of a college classroom.

College is different than the lower grades; it's optional. No one forces folks to take college courses. There isn't a bell to indicate when classes begin or end. No one calls when students don't show up. Students don't get detention or Saturday school, or calls to their parents. In fact, students are much more likely to get booted out of college for not paying than for not showing up.

Students attending college have to be motivated. If they are motivated by a desire to learn, they embrace their classes. They test themselves, complete the work and strive to understand the material. Cheating to achieve a passing score is not acceptable to these students because -- to them -- success equals knowledge.

What about students who are motivated by obligation? Some use college only as a stepping stone. Getting a diploma or certificate is all that matters. Comprehension is irrelevant; completion is the goal. What drives these students to embrace the material or to complete the work? What keeps them from cheating to get ahead? In a word; integrity.

It's easy to cheat in college. Need an essay or a term paper? Look on the Internet. Have homework to do? Copy it from someone else. No time for research? Make up the answers. The only thing keeping students from cheating is honesty.

At the start of each new class I have students introduce themselves and tell me why they are learning to become emergency medical technicians. Many just want a job. Some are truly interested in learning the material.

An ethical approach to learning transcends course content or motivation. There is no difference if a student is working toward a political science degree or earning an "A" in English or completing an EMT program.

There is a contract between instructor and student. Teachers need to teach and motivate; students bear the responsibility of completing the work. If assignments or tests are not reasonable, then students need to appeal to their instructor. If that doesn't work, they should try the department head or the dean. If students aren't satisfied with the appeals process, they can always drop the course. Cheating, however, is never justified.

It doesn't matter how my students plan to use their EMT training. I have to assume that those who graduate from the program are going to make decisions that will mean the difference between life and death. It's not enough to need a certificate. My students have to want to be emergency medical technicians.

When a person earns the right to put some initials after his or her name, we assume those initials indicate knowledge. "BS" should only mean bachelor of science, not something else. The last thing the public should have to worry about is whether that EMT -- responding when lives are on the line -- cheated to get there.

Brouhard is a paramedic in Modesto and director of the Emergency Medical Services program at Modesto Junior College