Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-06-24
THE PRINCETON SYSTEM"
VERSUS NAVAL ACADEMY.
What Others Think Of the Honor
system" at Annapolis.

System and Annapolis" the Harris
burg Star-Independent has the fol-
lowing TO say on the subject:
while the nation Is being startled
With revelations as to the apparently
dishonest methods used by students in
getting through the examinations IN
the Annapolis Naval Academy, the in
stitution that educates young men to
OH the most important Offices in Tn
Gle Sans Nayy.it is well TO consider
what plan might be adopted TO
remove the possibility of cribbing in
the fueure. In this connection might
profitably be considered the honor
system of examinations that has for
long time been in use in Princeton
University with great success, and
which has been adopted also in other
universities and colleges.
The honor system OF Princeton
places the students absolutely on their
honor. During the examinations they
are permitted at will 10 go in and out
of the room where the tests are being
held They may go TO their dormitory
rooms. If they desire to, ortake time of
for luncheon in the midst of an eXami-
nation. and then return to resume
work on their papers and no questions
are asked The instructors do not act
in the role of gum-shoe detectives try
ing to detect the students in the act
of cribbing Indeed. il frequently oc-
ours that there are times during an
examination whenthere is no instruc-
tor in the room, and when cribbing
would be the easiest thing in the
world were the students disposed 10
violatethe trust imposed in them.
1T has been proved by years of OPP
Grafton of the honor system at Prince
ton that the students. as a body, do
not violate the trust. Individual
cases of such violation have been so
rare as TO be practically non-existent.
II has been found that the single re-
luirement that each student, at the
end of his examination paper shall
sign a statement pledging his honor
as q gentleman that he has neither
given nor received assistance during
the test. is all that is necessary TO in
sure honesty in such examinations
The whole operation of the honor
system at Princeton is left in the
hands of the students themselves.
Part of the plan makes it just as much
breach of honor for a student to fail
to report.-to a standing committee of
students, violation of the pledge
on the part of a fellow student, that
may come TO his notice, as for the
uf.r Ir.,t Il e,If III, b. -
tests. The result of the whole system
is that social ostracism among the
student body and the quick exit from
the university-ordered by the stu
dents themselves through their own
committees the punishment of the
very few who violate the pledge sign
ed at the bottom of the examination
paper.
I'VE do not believe that students
entering Princeton University are of
higher average moral calibre than the
students entering Annapolis, and in
other schools of like standing where
there may be cribbing, appears to be
that is the accepted thing among stu
dents as a whole that getting through
an examination by any means is legit-
innate game. FoOling the professors
is rather glorified than despised. The
impression prevails, perhaps, that crib
bing is a praiseworthy accomplish
ment, If one is not caught at il, and
that there is no moral obliquity for a
man to crib,-simply because the rest.
or most of the rest of the men. do the
same thing.
Evidently there is no social ostra
cism for the cribbers at Annapolis.
Evidently there is no sentimet.at least
no widespread sentiment, among the
students at Annapolis, which puts
cribbing in the category of a dishon-
est act. Yet even if all the students
at the Naval Academy do it and, be-
cause of precedent, do not regard il
in the light of dishonesty, the fact re-
mains that it is a dangerous thing for
the United States for a system to
exist whereby young officers of the
Navy are shown by by the result Of
cribbed examination papers to be
qualified for their responsible posts
when as q matter of fact some of them
may not actually be 80 qualified.
What Annapolis needs is a system
something like Princeton S which pIa-
ces the students on their honor as
gentlemen not to make their exami-
nation papers make il seem that they
know more than they do know.