Princeton’s Return to Proctored Exams Reflects Changing Times

Since faculty voted in may to proctor in-person exams, national news outlets and some alumni have decried the end of Princeton’s 133-year-old tradition of unsupervised testing, but students, faculty, and recent graduates say the conversation within the campus community has been mild.

“I believe there is a consensus that with changing times we need to adapt,” said Minh Truong ’27, chair of the Honor Committee, a body of 18 students responsible for upholding the University’s Honor Code, via email.

The code was established in 1893 and requires students to pledge not to “gain an unfair advantage” or to “attempt to give assistance” to others. Princeton’s Honor Code and the Honor Committee will remain in place with the addition of proctored exams.

Details about proctoring will be published before the fall term, the University said. Claire Whiting, who is seeking her Ph.D. in psychology, doesn’t foresee substantial additional effort for teaching assistants. “In many cases, it may simply mean that TAs who would already have been nearby during the exam are now sitting in the room,” she said via email.

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After 133 Years, Princeton Is Going Back to Proctoring Exams

The faculty committee’s report cited concerns about widespread cheating with generative AI

The proposal specifically cited increased instances of cheating using AI as a reason for the new policy, but that seems to be only part of the problem.

Nadia Makuc ’26, former chair of the Honor Committee, said via email that cheating has “been building” in recent years. “I would attribute it more so to the transition away from take-home exams and device use in general,” she said.

William Aepli ’26, chair emeritus of Peer Reps, a student organization that supports those accused of cheating, mourned what he described in an email as “a substantive and negative change to the faculty-student relationship,” but acknowledged “rising levels of academic dishonesty, social stigma of reporting suspicions, and lack of quality evidence” in cases where students are accused of cheating.

Patrick Park, who is seeking his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, said “students are careful about getting doxed or getting canceled on social media for reporting other students.”

Stanford University also voted this spring to begin proctoring exams, and about half of Princeton’s Ivy League peers require proctors. For the rest, instructors set their own rules.

“I don’t think there is as strong of a commitment to honor and/or integrity … in the academic sense, that there seemed to be in, pick your early 1900s year,” said Ian Rosenzweig ’29, a member of the Honor Committee. Rosenzweig said he believes students today would rather obfuscate the truth than throw a classmate under the bus.

Eduardo Bhatia ’86, a visiting professor in public and international affairs at Princeton, spoke about the importance of the Honor Code in his Baccalaureate address in 2018. He wrote to PAW in June that he supports the new policy “as a temporary measure” while students and faculty “rethink how honor and academic integrity should function” in current times.

Julian Mišút ’28, clerk of the Honor Committee, said “it’s my impression that the student sentiment is that there’s quite a bit of cheating that’s slipping through the cracks.”

A Daily Princetonian survey of more than 500 seniors conducted earlier this year showed that 29.9% of respondents have cheated at Princeton, and 44.6% knew of an Honor Code violation but didn’t report it. According to the most recent statistics from the Honor Committee, from fall 2020 through spring 2025, there were 71 reports of violations, which led to 25 findings of responsibility. Penalties included suspension and expulsion.

Alex Kontorovich ’02, professor at Rutgers and visiting fellow at Princeton in fall 2024, called the move “very sad indeed,” on X, but in an interview with PAW conceded he would have made the same decision. “It’s just too easy and hence too tempting to cheat, and we’re at the point where if you’re one of the few kids who’s not cheating, then you’re putting yourself at a distinct disadvantage,” he said.

Whether proctors will deter Honor Code violations remains to be seen. Martin Day, a former postdoctoral researcher at Princeton and current associate professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, said via email it could lead “to more accurate reporting, [and] then that could look like an increase in suspected cheating.”