Princeton University will soon require exams to be supervised for the first time in over a century, as artificial intelligence has made cheating easier and more prevalent. For 133 years, the Ivy League school's honor code allowed students to take exams without a professor present, but on Monday, faculty voted to mandate proctoring for all in-person exams starting this summer.
Faculty and Students Demand Change
A 'significant' number of undergraduate students and faculty requested the change, 'given their perception that cheating on in-class exams has become widespread,' the college's dean, Michael Gordin, wrote in a letter, according to The Wall Street Journal. Princeton's honor system dates back to 1893, when students petitioned to eliminate proctors during examinations, according to the school's newspaper, The Daily Princetonian.
AI and Smartphones Fuel Cheating
The honor code has long been a point of pride for Princeton. However, artificial intelligence and cellphones have made it easier for students to cheat and harder for others to detect, Gordin wrote. Despite the policy changes, Princeton will still require students to pledge: 'I pledge my honor that I have not violated the Honor Code during this examination,' according to the Journal.
Students are also more reluctant to report cheating, according to the policy proposal. They are more likely to anonymously report cheating due to fears of 'doxxing or shaming among their peer groups' online, the proposal says, as reported by the school newspaper.
New Proctoring Guidelines
Under the new guidelines, instructors will be present during exams to act 'as a witness to what happens,' but are instructed not to interfere with students. If a suspected honor code infraction occurs, they will report it to a student-run honor committee for adjudication.
Nadia Makuc, a senior at Princeton who chaired the committee for the past year, told the Journal she thinks students support the change because it relieves them of the burden of reporting classmates for cheating. Makuc noted that the abundance of technology has made cheating easy for many students. 'If the exam is on a laptop, someone can just flip to another window. Or if the exam is in a blue book, it's just people using their phone under their desk or going to the bathroom and using it,' she said.
Survey Reveals Widespread Cheating
A survey of over 500 seniors conducted by the student newspaper last year found that 29.9 percent of respondents reported they had cheated on an assignment or exam during their time at the school. Nearly 45 percent said they had knowledge of an honor code violation but chose not to report. Only 0.4 percent said they reported a peer for an honor code violation.
English and theatre professor Jill Dolan, who served as dean of the college from 2015 to 2024, told the student newspaper that the new policy is 'a shame, but it's necessary.' 'But I also do understand why it passed. I think we need some different practices in this day and age, but it does mark a moment,' Dolan said.
National Trend
The changes at Princeton highlight an issue plaguing colleges, universities, and schools across the country. While some colleges have returned to old-fashioned blue books, others have opted for AI-detection programs designed to sniff out when students use technology to do their assignments. Nearly half (43 percent) of U.S. teachers with classes from sixth to twelfth grade said they used AI detection tools in the 2024/2025 academic year, according to a poll by the Center for Democracy and Technology.
