Professor does not care about cheating, what should TA do? I am a PhD student, working as a Homework marking TA in a school where cheating is extremely blatant. The university has an extremely strict policy against cheating. Hundreds of students in math courses alone are reported each year, and suspensions are given to severe/repeat offenders. I have personally reported cheating many times.

Based on this environment, most courses have shifted away from Homework grades, and more toward Quiz/Test grades.

My course is a low-bar mid-level math course, very likely to be the last math course ever taken by the students who enrolled in the course.

The marking distribution of my course is done in a way where the homework mark weight is so absurdly high that cheating on homework would almost guarantee a pass.

I had realized this at the beginning of September, and discussed with (confronted) the instructor.
The short summary of the response is that the instructor doesn't care about cheating.

The professor doesn't want to put in the effort to deal with cheaters.
The professor thinks the students cheating would not be overly unfair to other students who don't cheat.
The professor also does not want me to try to catch cheaters.

I have made clear that cheating on homework almost guarantees a pass, and he/she agrees, and is ok with this.

The homework are all questions from the textbook, and a solution manual is readily available on google.

In this week's homework, I have found more than 100 students who have copied from the solution manual, where at least 50 students copied word for word (if reported, the cheating done can be easily proved by the school.)

I suspect I only caught a portion of all cheaters, as buying solutions at this university is too blatant. 

I would like to ask the community of my next steps.

If I were to report the cheating to him/her:
Would I anger the professor, since this is against his/her wishes?
Would I build a tense relationship with him following this? (There is still a whole semester ahead, and possibly years in the same university.)
What would be done in the end? What if he ignores the report, what should my next steps be?

If I were to report to the undergrad chair:
Would it be inappropriate to skip reporting to instructor first?
Would I also build a tense relationship with the instructor by this move?
I am almost positive that there would be action by the undergrad chair on the cheating behavior.

I could also report to both simultaneously.
I could also do nothing at all, in which case the cheating would without a doubt continue for the whole term, with the vast majority of students taking part.

I personally disagree with the professor, as I believe that it is unfair for the minority of students who don't cheat.
Due to the high homework marks, a mark curve is highly unlikely, so the students who don't cheat are truly getting lower marks because of the cheaters.

The instructor is in the beginning of his/her career, and not retiring. The university is in North America, very large (more than 50,000 undergrad)

Edit3: 
As I continue to grade, I have found more and more cheaters, in the hundreds, approaching 50% of the class.

Thanks for all the suggestions asking me to "let it go". 
After much consideration, I can not take such advice.

Thanks for all the suggestions of asking me to "not skip the chain of command".
I have since realized this may have severe consequences, and have decided against it.

I have contacted only the instructor with minimal details of the situation.
Thanks for all the support and best wishes from the community, I sincerely appreciate it.
I realize that the following advice may be very unsatisfying. But you may need to hear it, just to save yourself from grief. I hope it helps. 

It may be that you have done all that you can do without harming your own future. You need to judge that, of course, but getting between a new professor and the administration can be uncomfortable at best and career ending at worst. 

But you can, of course, vow to be a better actor than this professor when it comes your turn to be in the driver's seat. 



There are a lot of possible "reasons" for the situation you are in, none of them especially valid, but still possibly determinant. 

Perhaps the department doesn't care a lot about these students or this course, as it doesn't sound like they are in the major. 

Perhaps the professor is so tied up in research that he just doesn't care about (or have time for) teaching. This is true, in fact, for some untenured professors. 

Perhaps the professor is seen as a future superstar who is immune from all criticism. 



If you weren't alone, and had other TAs with similar concerns then you would be in a better position to bring the situation to the attention of higher-ups. If you are friendly with another professor who sees the problem and also objects to it, you could work through him/her. 

If your duties included more than grading, such as leading small breakout sections, you could, perhaps, work with your smaller group to get some local change. But, if it is the professor's job to teach them and he refuses to do it effectively then there isn't a lot you can do. 

But as a sole TA with only grading responsibilities you don't have a lot of options that won't come back to your own disadvantage. 



Certainly you can bring it to the attention of the undergrad coordinator, with evidence. Whether to do it without the knowledge of the prof or not is a (risky) judgement call. But if a solution is to be found, you probably won't be part of creating it. It would be a faculty committee that would have authority and be able to effect change. But you would likely be in the center of any controversy that was generated. As a doctoral student, it feels pretty unsafe to me. 

Look to the future, and learn from the past. Do your best but don't put yourself at risk unnecessarily.