WIBTA if I reported my classmate for buying our final paper online?
I’m taking a 300 level history seminar this spring, and our final paper is basically the whole course. It’s 18 to 22 pages, built from primary sources, and we’ve had to submit an outline, annotated bibliography, and draft sections over the last two months. There are only 14 people in the class, so everyone knows what everyone else is working on. One guy in my group, “Evan,” has been doing his project on labor newspapers in Chicago, and I’ve heard him talk about it enough that I know his actual argument was kind of messy but interesting.
Last night he asked me to look over his final draft because he “wanted a second set of eyes.” I opened it and it was nothing like anything he’d written before. The topic had shifted, the sources were completely different, and it had this polished academic tone that honestly did not sound like him at all. Then I noticed one paragraph had a weird leftover line at the bottom that said something like “client requested MLA 9 and no AI detection flags.” I asked him what that was, and he panicked and admitted he paid someone online to write it because he’s been overwhelmed and “couldn’t afford to fail.” He begged me not to say anything and said he’d already submitted it.
I haven’t told anyone yet. Part of me feels like it’s not my business, and I know reporting him could seriously mess up his academic record. But I also spent weeks doing my own work, and this seminar is graded on a curve-ish system where the professor compares the quality of papers when deciding final marks. I’m also worried that if the professor somehow finds out I knew and stayed quiet, I could get pulled into it.
WIBTA if I emailed the professor and said what I saw, even if Evan trusted me when he admitted it?