Coffee and Doughnuts at Yale

A recent graduate of Harvard, finding himself in the student lounge of the Yale Law School one day last week, approached a student who was busy writing and attempted to start a conversation. At first the Yalie didn't respond, but when the Harvard man persisted, he looked up, and said: "Excuse me, buddy, but I can't talk to you. I'm taking an examination." Where upon the Harvard man crossed the lounge to a couple of students dipping coffee, only to find they too were in the middle of an exam, and were taking a brief break.

To someone who has done battle at the lists in Memorial Hall this procedure is not upsetting. He is used to being examined in more funeral settings, complete with invocation ("You will have three hours ...") and benediction ("Gentlemen, this examination is over.") To take an examination without a proctor nearby to hand you bluebooks and save you from the consequences of original sin would seem an invitation to lack of preparation, cheating, and worse.

But it doesn't work out that way at Yale. Of course, the basic tensions that make exam period a morbid time of year are as present in New Haven as at Harvard or anywhere else. There are as many bleary eyes, poor appetites and ragged tempers; as much No-Doz swallowed and coffee drunk; as many rumors of students cracking-up, breaking down, and flunking out. What distinguishes Yale is the difference in the examination procedure itself. At a designated time, students pick up bluebooks and copies of the exam in one room. They can then go to any classroom, lounge, or seminar room in the school, except, of course, the library. Examinations are not proctored. Students wander through the corridors, smoking and mulling. The Student Council provides coffee and doughnuts for those in need of refreshment.

This procedure, of course, presupposes a modified sort of honor system. But it is self-enforcing. Although students could talk to each other without being dragged out of the room by three proctors, they don't. Although about 65 per cent of the courses at Yale give open book exams, there is no problem of students looking up answers in those that are closed. Law books being what they are, if you wanted an answer, you couldn't find it.

Those Harvard graduates who have tasted both systems like Yale's better. They have explained their preference in high and pompous terms: that it "indicates a greater amount of trust in students by the administration", that "honesty is bred through temptation"; and other canards. But what they really mean to say was summed up by one student, who, stumbling our of an examination room and collapsing into a chair, remarks:

"Look, if you're gonna be sick anyway, wouldn't you rather be home than in a hospital?"