Despite the sound of it, there's no relationship between the words "proctor" and "proctologist." At least not linguistically. From what we have been hearing, being an exam proctor — a term derived from the Middle English word "procutor," meaning a university officer or manager — can be just as uncomfortable, uninviting, and potentially dirty work.

As part of his research for this issue's feature on cheating, writer Michael Penn took a professor up on an offer and proctored an exam. He didn't catch any cheaters, but he did gain an appreciation for what professors had been telling us — that students are more willing to cheat, and more adept at doing it. We wanted to share with readers a sense of how they do it (or at least how we hear they're doing it), but that presented a challenge. How do you take pictures of something that most of the time happens when you aren't looking?

The answer came with a little creative license. Photographer Jeff Miller enlisted several student volunteers to take a fake test in a large classroom in Bascom Hall. We told each of the students to cheat, using some of the more inventive methods we'd read about. Jeff then prowled the room, "catching" them in the act. We think his photos capture the voyeuristic nature of proctoring perfectly, while also managing to protect the identities of the students who helped us out.