Unique Honor System Covers Everything From Sex To Stealing

The remarkable thing about Princeton is not that it has an honor system, but that the system really works. The tradition of individual responsibility has become stronger with age so that a Princeton man's honor now not only applles to the specific exam but to everything be does at Princeton.

In disciplinary matters the college trusts the students, only requiring seven proctors to police the whole campus. Throughout the whole atmosphere of the University there is a feeling of personal responsibility which is foreign to the supervised Harvardman.

This feeling springs from the fact that all written exams, tests and written recitations are conducted under the Honor system. The student writes on the front of every exam he takes: "I pledge my honor as a gentleman that during this examination I have neither given nor received assistance." He can take the exam to his room, go out in the middle of it for a beer, or talk to any of his friends. As long as he signs the pledge he is not monitored in any way.

What Would You Do?

With this as a basis, the tradition has spread throughout all the college activities. When asked whether he felt that the temptation to cheat on an exam was strong or not, a Princeton senior replied, "Nobody ever thinks of cheating. It's become so traditional in everything that it isn't done. It's as if you and your girl went swimming and she asked you to turn your back while she changed your clothes. Would you turn around?. Well, it's the same way in the honor system."

One man was expelled last year for violation of this system, and he was the first since the war. A student committee of seven members, to whom every other student is expected to report any evidence of dishonesty, decides on the evidence. If guilty, the committee reports it to the Faculty with a recommendation. The faculty usually expels the student if six out of seven on the committee concur in conviction.

At present some members of the Honor committee in the senior class are hoping to write the honor tradition down in some sort of a preamble in order to clarify it and institutionalize it more than it is. It really doesn't need any strengthening, for even as an unwritten law, it is all powerful in Princeton.

Ex-president of the Argentine newspaper La Prensa, Alberto Paz, said after his visit to America that it was not the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls that was the most remarkable thing he saw, but the Princeton honor system, and he might well think so.