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Can I just ignore my suspicions and not follow up?

No. A major part of your job as proctor is to report suspected instances of cheating.

What could be the consequences if I simply don't report it?

If it is found out that you intentionally concealed evidence of cheating, I would expect that you will not be allowed to work as a teaching assistant at this university anymore. This might jeopardize your ability to continue as a student.

I don't want my student from my recitation section to fail this class.

Nobody wants their students to fail, but part of your job is to help ensure that students get the grade that their work, and their behavior, earns them, even if that isn't the outcome you want.

I am torn about what to do. Can I just ignore my suspicions and not follow up? What could be the consequences if I simply don't report it?

I can understand your anxiety in this situation. However, you agreed to proctor the exam, and that job entails reporting evidence of cheating that you saw. Reporting students for possible academic misconduct when there are grounds to do so can be an awkward situation, but it is a necessary part of enforcing proper academic conduct. Students should not be relieved of the responsibility not to cheat in an examination simply because the proctor has decided that she does not want the student to fail. Your role as a teacher of this student should not undermine your role as a proctor for this exam.

In processes like this, it is not your "suspicions" that you are reporting. You are obliged to report the factual evidence that you saw. You say that you "saw what appeared to be cheating activities" between the students, and you also see evidence of collusion in the answers on the exam. As a proctor for the exam, it is my view that you are obliged to report this information to whoever is the relevant authority for reporting (e.g., course lecturer, Head of School). That person will then have to make a decision of whether that evidence you have reported is sufficient for an investigation into academic misconduct.

As to the consequences of inaction, if you decide to keep this to yourself, it is unlikely that anyone else will know what you have done. (Indeed, the only evidence you saw this is your present post on this forum.) But you will know. Situations like these give us a test of integrity, and if you decide not report this information, simply because of your role teaching this student, you are doing a disservice to the other students in the university. This kind of situation is well described by the aphorism of Adam Smith: mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

Upon looking at both of their exams for grading, I see that their multiple choice sections -- 10 questions -- have identical answers.

In itself, that is not strong evidence of collusion. Giving the same answer on multiple choice questions where that is the right answer is not evidence of collusion at all. Giving the same wrong answers may constitute evidence of collusion to the extent that these choices of answers are unusual, but on its own that would be weak evidence of collusion. In any case, it is not your job to assess the strength of the evidence --- your job here is to report the things you saw that have caused you to believe that academic misconduct may have occurred.

Largely echoing the other answers, but I don't see any that have all the essential elements.

I proctored a calculus final exam...and saw what appeared to be cheating activities between two students during the exam.

You should have reported this immediately to the other proctors. At this point, you can still report it, but it is almost certainly too late.

Upon looking at both of their exams for grading, I see that their multiple choice sections -- 10 questions -- have identical answers. They got exactly the same questions right / wrong.

This proves absolutely nothing.

Can I just ignore my suspicions and not follow up? What could be the consequences if I simply don't report it?

Failing to report evidence of cheating is a clear dereliction of duty. Doing so for your friend's personal gain is a good reason to get fired. In practice, however, it would be very difficult to prove that you knew about this and didn't report it.

I don't want my student from my recitation section to fail this class.

Why not? Students are not your friends, and it is inappropriate to think of them as such. If this was a pre-existing friend, you have a conflict of interest and should have disclosed this at the beginning of the term.

First, it is totally unprofessional to think of students as friends because you teach them in some sessions or if this influences your decision about whether to report them.

Next, you ask what could happen if you don't report it. Most likely nothing can happen to you if nobody can prove that you did know about it.
However! Not reporting is the unethical and wrong thing to do! You should definitely tell the professor (if they are not totally unreasonable) about your suspicion - as a TA, you work for them, so you have to tell them. It's likely that they know what to do and whether some action has to be taken.

If your institution has a policy/honor code that requires you to report suspected cheating, you have your answer: You must report it. This is not ambiguous.

If your institution does not have such a policy, it's a matter of personal ethics regarding whether you report or not. The ethical thing to do is to report the suspected misconduct, no matter how unpleasant it may be to do so. Again, this is not ambiguous.

Either way, all you're doing is reporting suspected cheating. You are not judge and jury. Once you make the report, it is someone else's problem (an honor council, an academic conduct officer, your professor, your department chair, someone else) to examine the evidence, meet with the students, decide whether to find the students responsible and, if so, what the consequences should be.

You've lost your chance of fairly reporting those students...

If you brought these two students up on disciplinary charges, they should be acquitted based on the evidence you provided. Why?

1. You did not interrupt the supposed cheating activity you claim you witnessed.


2. You did not report the two supposed cheaters on the spot.


3. You did nothing for several (?) days later.


4. You only decided to report two students when you saw they had the same answers for some multiple-choice questions.

Not only is your behavior suspect, but you are also suffering from confirmation bias w.r.t. the identical multiple-choice questions.

Now, in a perfect world, it wouldn't even matter if you reported them. But in our world, it's possible a disciplinary body will just rubber-stamp the charge with a conviction. For this reason, you should at this point in time not report these students.

... but do something else to address their situation

I suggest you, or you and the professor, call these two students to a meeting in your or his office (with or without holding back their exam grade). Tell them you believe they have cheated, and what you saw. If they confess, try to agree together on a fair course of action.

But regardless of whether they confess, try to determine whether one or both of them have been facing difficulties with the course material, or with the timing of exams etc. Try to use your experience and/or time and/or influence with others in faculty or the administrative staff to help them better cope with said difficulty. I realize this is extremely vague advice - but obviously I can't speculate with any specificity. Just remember that your main duty as a teacher is to help your students gain knowledge and understanding of the subject matter - more so than maintaining discipline or ensuring "correct" relative grading.

Identical answers on ten multiple choice questions is, in itself, ZERO evidence of cheating. In the absence of some actual evidence of copying, just ignore it. If it were a hundred questions then maybe there is some evidence. If they were written answers, then yes.

But what you may have evidence of is that two people have the same misconceptions. Depending on the teaching that isn't especially rare. After all, they heard the same lectures and use the same materials. They may even have studied together.

Don't make accusations unless you witnessed something improper going on, and then treat the students the same way you would any others. But it is the witness accounts that are the basis of action.

Let me add a bit. If some of the answers by the two students were actually correct then that is no evidence at all of cheating. So, there is a smaller number of questions that might be questionable. Perhaps the OP will clarify whether the incorrect answers were identical on the two papers, or just both wrong. Also, to do a probability analysis it would be required to know how many questions were wrong, but identical, and how many choices on each question.

I still maintain that the papers alone are not evidence. The other considerations apply, of course, but it seems that no action was taken and maybe none recorded at the time.

Your duty was to proctor the exam honestly and with due diligence.

You SHOULD have reported the suspected copying immediately.

You SHOULD have reported that the marking confirms your suspicion.

But your question is about what you CAN do. As a mathemetician, I am sure you know the difference between CAN and SHOULD.

You COULD continue to do nothing. There would probably be no practical consequences.

The only reason this question is being asked, and the only reason there is an issue at all, is the OP's desire to protect a student (friend?) in her recitation section from consequences. This desire is why no action was taken during the exam, why only minor action has been taken after the exam (collecting forensic evidence and posting here). There is a big difference between wanting a student to succeed because of their merit, and wanting them to succeed despite their lack of merit.

This latter desire is entirely misplaced, unprofessional, and indeed dangerous. Now OP is an accessory to potential academic misconduct. What if, instead of copying answers, the students had an answer key that they were copying from, during the exam? What if they had broken into the professor's office to get the answer key? What if they held the professor at gunpoint during the break-in? Ethically, there is no difference here -- the OP should be equally unwilling to protect the students in all these situations.

OP's job is to educate the students, not only in the subject matter, but in the academic code of conduct expected in a college setting. Failing to educate them is a breach of responsibility, and encourages the students to continue (or escalate) their misconduct in the future. It is unfair to other students who behaved ethically. And, most importantly, it is a violation of OP's academic conduct.

For one, in just about every serious educational institution I've heard of, beyond high school, from community college on up, cheating on an exam or test and getting caught and reported, can result in expulsion. You don't always just fail the course. Getting accepted to another academic university or graduate school (as opposed to corporate university-like for-profit BS schools), with that on your record, probably isn't going happen. You're often done. College is not high school. It's typically one strike and you're out if you're formally redressed by the administration for egregiously cheating on exams and tests.

A better solution, if they really are your friends, might be to call them out as soon as you notice suspicious activity, remind them that cheating is grounds for ending them, whether they are your friend or not, and draw the boundaries of your friendship, in the nicest way possible. Communication and diplomacy are important in social/professional interaction and friendships. That's one of the things you are supposed to learn growing up, and in school.

Another solution, if they aren't your friends, is to simply make them aware you are watching them, and if they cheat, you'll know it and something will be done about it. Remember they haven't cheated yet, and no damage has been done, if the test just started, you're hawk-eyeing them, and making them aware of it. Loudly clearing your throat once, and making eye contact, would do the trick. I've seen this done and it's a very effective way to let people know that you take TA'ing seriously and not to **** with you. If they cheat anyway, the consequences are on them. Once they're on your bad side, if they don't cheat after that, keep them on your bad side for the semester, put them under a microscope and whatever their average is in the class, drop it by half a grade for their final grade. If they complain about it, let them know what you could have done. If you catch them again, THEN go to the board. By doing this you are teaching them a very important lesson. Isn't that what college is all about? Teaching and learning?

Being passive aggressive with an issue as serious as this, pretending you don't see them, quietly running to the academic review board to snitch on people with cell phone video, then failing them in your class, and possibly getting them expelled, is sociopath behavior. I'm sure if the students realized how serious you take this, how obvious it is that they are cheating, and you are the one TA in the university that not only sees them cheating, but will get them canned, they won't be cheating in your classes.

You can be tough and "ethical", but you also have to display some humanity by making the students aware of the parameters they're going to be subjected to, if that's the road you want to travel, and I'm not saying that's a bad way to run your classes; it's a good way. It's probably the best and right way. Just let them see you sharpening your axe and give them a chance to reconsider their behavior before you go cutting their heads off, because not everyone runs their classes that way.

This is called managing expectations and is a very important workplace skill. People that can't do it have a very tough row to hoe at work. If you master it, you'll go far.