Honor System at Princeton.

Final steps have been taken by the students of Princeton to perpetuate the "honor" system in examinations which has been in vogue the last three years in all departments of the university. Heretofore the system has been something in the nature of an experiment, and no hard and fast rules have been laid down for its control. But so successfully has the system worked during its three years' trial that both faculty and students are heartily in favor of it. Accordingly a mass meeting of the college has been held, at which a constitution regulating the new honor system was adopted. This was considered necessary for the guidance of future generations of students, lest when the present senior class shall have graduated laxity in the mode of procedure in connection with the system should lead to the loss of all the good results which they have brought about, and finally to the overthrow of the system.

The system has apparently created a higher standard of honor among students. This, it is thought will be fostered and preserved by the new constitution, in that an undergraduate committee of investigation and punishment in cases of violation is established with a regular mode of procedure in such cases. This committee consists of six members, chosen from the student body, and it has power to deal with all cases involving violations of the system. The presidents of the four classes and one senior and one junior make up the committee. This committee has the power to summon the accused persons and witnesses, and to conduct formal investigations, and, in cases of conviction, to determine the punishment. In case of conviction of a member of the senior, junior, or sophomore class, the penalty is a recommendation to the Faculty of his separation from college, with the addition in extreme cases of his publication to a mass meeting of the college.

In case of violation of the system by a freshman, the penalty is suspension for a period of time determined by the committee. A violation of the honor system is held to be any attempt to receive assistance from written aids or from any person or his paper, or any attempt to give assistance. This rule holds within or without the examination room during the entire time in which the examination is in progress. The sentiment of the student body is back of the movement, and the Faculty is heartily in its favor. A prominent member of that body recently said that he regarded this honor system as the most important movement which had taken place in Princeton during his professorship - a period of some fifteen years.

A double-page illustration of the Princeton examination in progress will appear in Harper's Weekly about the 1st of June with an article on the system by Professor Fine of the department of mathematics.