All in-person examinations at Princeton will be proctored starting July 1, representing the most significant change to the honor system since it was established in 1893. The faculty passed a proposal requiring instructor supervision at Monday’s faculty meeting, with one opposing vote.
The historic vote was the culmination of months of deliberation within the administration and student governing bodies about how to address increasing concerns over academic integrity violations, including the proliferation of AI usage. The proposal cleared a full faculty vote as the final of three required rounds of approval, having already been passed unanimously by the Committee on Examinations and Standing and the Faculty Advisory Committee on Policy.
3 Likes
Not surprising. My understanding (from my kiddos) is that cheating in college is rampant these days.
8 Likes
So many other colleges have honor code too. Are they following suit, or they have better student body?
There was a discussion in Princeton’s student newspaper about their honor code comparing it to Haverford’s. It’s an interesting discussion that I think, at some level, comes down to Haverford students having an obligation to intercede when they see something not right. Princeton students don’t seem to want to get involved when a cheating episode arises.
10 Likes
Haverford honor code has so much student involvement, I wonder if that does make a difference on the ground in terms of issues of academic integrity and addressing them.
Still, after 133 years, this change at Princeton is a pretty big deal and seems to signal a significant shift in the trust and responsibility given to students to do what is right.
8 Likes
I do not recall seeing people cheating on exams in university, although I do remember a few people collaborating on homework.
In terms of proctoring exams, if I had ever seen another student doing anything that seemed suspicious, I do not think that I would have known what to do. I would just as soon have a proctor at the exam so that it would not be my responsibility to do anything. When taking exams, I would have preferred to just focus on the exam (which can be tough enough in many cases).
I was in university back before everyone had a cell phone. I can see how a cell phone could dramatically increase the opportunity for cheating. Ugh.
I think that Princeton is doing the right thing.
5 Likes
Cheating is more common and easy than before. In our HS, for regular tests, there are students using cell phone down the desk and some teacher/proctor means not doing better job. In recent AP exams, my kids said some classmates just use bathroom very often in short period, which looks very suspicious.
Those students who cheated in HS will cheat again in colleges. Challenge lies what is the solution and what should other students do.
1 Like
I had a different read of the article than this. In fact, the second sentence indicates that Princeton’s honor code expects students to report instances of cheating.
Princeton’s vaunted Honor Code can sometimes feel like the butt of a running joke. Despite the policy’s insistence that students report in-person cases of cheating, there’s still a sense that academic dishonesty runs unchecked on some exams.
My read was that the author believes that it is the active engagement of students with the honor code that makes the code at Haverford (and Bryn Mawr) so successful:
But the culture underpinning the policy extends beyond academics. Renewed by a student body vote each spring through a months-long deliberation process, Haverford’s honor code serves as an embodiment of its Quaker values and creates a baseline trust between students and professors. At Bryn Mawr, too, the honor code is explicitly advertised as a “living document.” Both schools host an annual ‘Plenary’ process in which students discuss, amend, and re-ratify the Honor Code.
As Haverford and Bryn Mawr students engage and ratify the code yearly, while the process at Princeton seems far more remote and static, the author thinks that it impacts the culture around the honor code.
5 Likes
Point well taken! I agree with your read.
I think I’m mostly just catching that Princeton students seemingly choose to not get involved. That they lack the buy-in and culture of involvement seems to be the root cause.
5 Likes
I appreciate you sharing that column, though so much of it is damning for aspects of our society.
It’s no wonder, then, that Princeton students feel no fealty to the Honor Code: most of us never meaningfully agreed to it in the first place…Princeton should work toward implementing an honor code that is integral to student identity, not just a perfunctory pledge that we memorize and write on the first page of our exams.
If somebody signs a non-compete when they begin their employment with a company, it doesn’t matter how often the non-compete is discussed; an employee has agreed to it (and I’m not referencing absurd examples of some fast food places getting minors to sign that they won’t work at any other food industry companies in the area). Or if I sign a petition, you can bet that I’ve read the petition and am in agreement with it. If a student doesn’t agree with the honor code, then they shouldn’t sign it.
And if students are required to write Princeton’s pledge on every exam, then it seems as though the school is keeping this front and center for students. If one is writing a lie, that speaks to one’s own integrity, not to the institution’s.
Haverford and Bryn Mawr’s honor codes do not exist in a vacuum; they are bolstered by cultures that place intellectual growth above material achievement. As a community, we should strive to emulate these priorities, and dispense with our competitive, results-oriented culture. It would be entirely foreign to encounter, as Harper does at Haverford, a Princeton student that cares so singularly about their learning they don’t even understand why one would cheat. Our excessive focus on grading, achievement, extracurriculars, and post-graduate plans renders it difficult for students to value knowledge for its own sake.
This, however, was the most disheartening part for me. Although it’s one student’s perspective, they seem quite confident in the rarity of students who don’t even understand why one would want to cheat. And it obliterates the idea of students who are so involved in various pursuits being interested in those activities for their own merit, as it seems (to this student at least) that the involvement is only of interest if it will result in positive post-graduation outcomes.
I understand that people attend college for different reasons and, for many, it is about gaining the skills and/or credentials to successfully launch a career. But for one of the most financially generous schools in the country (making attendance very affordable for families whose incomes are in the bottom 85% or so of the country) that is pulling some of the brightest minds in the world, it is depressing that so many of its students lack the academic integrity and intellectual curiosity to take advantage of the education being offered.
8 Likes
The honor code is carved in stone at our son’s college, and cadets pass this monument every single day:
Interesting that “toleration” is considered the worst of the offenses, and all cadets, staff, and faculty have a duty to report suspected violations. Any cadet accused of lying, cheating, or toleration must stand before an honor board. If “found,” the cadet faces severe consequences from rehabilitation programs to separation.
Unfortunately, even in a place where duty, honor, and country are what the institution stands for, there are bad apples. In 2020-2021, a massive scandal involved 73 cadets who were accused of cheating on a remote calculus exam, with 55 cadets admitting guilt and receiving probation, while others left or were separated.
I applaud any institution’s efforts to (re)emphasize the importance of academic integrity and the moral obligation to identify where their communities are being compromise; it’s the academic version of “if you see something, say something.” And though I commend Princeton’s effort, these principles need to be ingrained from birth and modeled consistently in the home first.
4 Likes
People have always cheated. It’s just easier now. My daughter is a TA for several professors and she says it’s obvious when students are using AI to write their essays.
Good for Princeton for making an effort to crack down on it.
2 Likes
I agree cheating has always existed in human societies, and realistically only some people feel comfortable intervening, most just want to stay out of it (a not inherently unreasonable attitude). A few people do have that enforcer mentality, but there is usually no guarantee one will be sitting in every exam room, study group, or so on.
So while it is interesting when institutions can make it work with mostly other students acting as the enforcers, I do think that realistically, those institutions will always be niche exceptions. And if Princeton has moved from that niche into the mainstream, well, that’s a bit sad, but not exactly a big surprise to me.
1 Like
That’s harsh.
Calling out someone at the grocery store who is standing in the express line with 12 items, not 10 is the enforcer mentality. Taking a stand on academic dishonesty is a completely different issue IMHO.
2 Likes
I didn’t mean “enforcer mentality” in a pejorative way.
In fact, I consider myself to have a bit of that mentality. It is why I preferred my antitrust practice to be on the enforcement side. I was more motivated to identify and try to punish antitrust violators than defend accused antitrust violators.
So for me, this is just a neutral concept.
2 Likes
Also, students writing their own exams presumably are not paying much attention to whether other students in the room may be cheating. And if you are looking around the room for cheaters, someone else may think that you are looking around to cheat off of someone else.
3 Likes
Absolutely. This is part of why a lot of people reasonably just want to keep their heads down (a metaphor for a reason). When you get involved, you don’t know what unintended consequences that might have for you.
LSAC is eliminating remote LSAT exams starting August 2026. You will now have to take it at a Prometric center.
There were stories of people with sophisticated software that fooled online monitoring.
5 Likes
There was a big cheating scandal when I was in college (FWIW we didn’t have an explicit big honor code or anything)
Ironically, it was for a very, notoriously so, EASY, large intro class. It was almost so easy people didn’t even want to bother doing the graded homework (or at-home exams? don’t remember), they felt they deserved the A, so why bother (and they all would have had an A or A-) had they done almost anything….
I honestly think the prof busted it wide open because he was so royally pissed they were lazy more than anything.I think he may have even said as much
Cheating is an interesting psychological thing sometimes…
1 Like
Interesting piece questioning if Wellesley should follow suit and revoke their Honor Code exam policy, too: