In pursuit of perfection
Though many see the Honor Code as a sacred fixture of Princeton tradition, the 107-year-old document has not been immune to change.Recent proposals to change the Honor System follow a decade of increased discussion about the Honor Code and at least four modifications to the Honor System's constitution during the last seven years.Proposed changes ? which include adding faculty advisers, creating a defense advocate pool and expanding the jurisdiction of the code to out-of-class exams ? seem sweeping but may be just another step in a recent line of Honor Code reforms.In 1994, the committee extended the period for an accused student to prepare for his hearing from one day to seven days.Two years later, the guidelines for choosing a defense advocate were modified to include only current undergraduate students and exclude administrators, faculty and graduate students from serving in the position.In 1998, the committee added a clause stating that in the presence of "overwhelmingly convincing evidence," plausibility of method, rather than intent, is enough to convict a student of violating the code.