Straws in the Wind - Part 278

From the Daily Princetonian: University faculty and administrators will consider a proposal to require proctoring for all in-person examinations, which would mark a departure from the traditionally unproctored exam format under the Honor Code. If passed, the policy could take effect as early as next fall, according to Honor Committee members. The proposal was discussed in a meeting between Honor Committee leadership and Dean of the College Michael Gordin on Wednesday, Feb. 25. Although conversations about proctored examinations have been ongoing in recent years, the new policy is now set to enter a multi-stage faculty and administrative review before it can come to a vote by the faculty. Currently, only individual and small group examinations are proctored.

The tradition of not proctoring has existed since the introduction of Princeton’s honor system in 1893. The system has relied on student self-governance and mutual accountability. Students pledge both to refrain from infractions of academic dishonesty and to report any breaches of the Constitution they witness. 

“The prohibition on proctoring is formalized in ‘Rules and Procedures of the Faculty.’ Any change to that policy would have to pass through the relevant committees and be voted on by the full faculty,” Gordin wrote in a statement to The Daily Princetonian. “Since that process has not begun, I cannot predict when it would conclude.”

...An expansion of proctoring already occurred earlier this academic year, according to Makuc. In November, faculty were instructed to proctor all individual and small-group exams, including make-up exams, exams taken by student-athletes while traveling, and exams taken with disability accommodations. The University’s consideration of the new policy stems from broader concerns about academic integrity and enforcement...

Full story at https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2026/03/princeton-news-adpol-proctoring-honor-code-in-person-exams.

===

From Inside Higher Ed: Indiana’s governor has signed into law a bill that aims to eliminate all academic programs at the state’s public universities and at Ivy Tech Community College that fail a new federal earnings test. Congress created the Do No Harm test when it passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer. The test, which hasn’t yet taken effect, will generally require programs to show their graduates earn more on average than high school diploma earners (just over $35,000 in Indiana), or else students in those programs will no longer be able to receive federal student loans. Graduate and professional program earnings would further have to exceed bachelor's degree earnings.

But Indiana’s Senate Bill 199 will make failing that test even more punitive in the Hoosier State. It adopts the federal test into state law and says programs that fail it must close entirely—unless the state Commission for Higher Education, a group of gubernatorial appointees, grants an exemption...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/03/10/indiana-governor-signs-bill-end-low-earning-degrees.