As a professor of mathematics and computer science at a large regional university in the south, Al regularly teaches a remedial algebra course.  The course typically enrolls students who have done very poorly in high-school math—a number of whom feel they were hopelessly incompetent in math and are frightened of failing yet again.

Al's course, which has 90 students, has five exams during the semester.  After grading the first one, he makes a mental note to pay close attention to a few students—this year including Sarah, a sophomore who does particularly badly on the exam.  She confesses to him that she has never understood math at all but needs this course for her major.  So Al is surprised to see that she is not in the room during the second exam.  He does, however, think he sees a young man whom he hasn't seen before.  When the young man turns in his test paper, Al puts it aside to look at later.  Sure enough, when he turns it over, it has Sarah's name on it.

On this point, Al knows, the rules of the university are particularly clear: he could initiate action that will surely lead to the immediate and dishonorable dismissal of both Sarah and her friend.  But he knows that such a dismissal would become a permanent part of their records.  As such, it could forever warp their futures.  To be sure, they did something terribly wrong.  And certainly, given the well-known levels of cheating in the university system, the faculty has to send strong messages that such cheating will not be tolerated.

But do these two deserve to be singled out and academically destroyed?  Is it fair to punish two individuals for the increased cheating statistics of their generation—especially when Sarah seems to have been driven into temptation through an almost helpless sense of fear?  Al finds himself in a right-versus-right dilemma, with his strong sense of justice pitted against his powerful sense of mercy.  So he calls them in to see him.  The young man, it turns out, is Sarah's boyfriend and a senior engineering major.  Al lets them know the serious trouble they are in, and sends them away for a week while he considers what to do.

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