THERE IS A SMALL, two-room apartment by the Toronto Reference Library, and inside sit a desktop computer, an old IKEA shelf weighed down by textbooks, and a safe concealing hundreds of dollars in cash. Students—desperate, lazy, rich or inarticulate—call this office, pay a minimum of $30 per page ($15 to the writer, $15 to the company), and receive a tailor-written essay. Virtually all of these students will then write their names on the title page (a title is frequently thrown in as a bonus in such transactions), and turn it in to their professors. They usually get Bs.

“As long as the BA is an economic investment, you have to expect that people will just address the economic investment in little ways. I consider myself sort of a broker.”

This was part of a cover feature for the Watch‘s January 2011 issue, inspired by the quasi-infamous “FYP 14” mini-scandal that rocked our school. You can read most of the updates on the Watch‘s website, which I’ve been developing and re-developing over the last few months.