Their nerves taut from worry and lack of sleep, a good number of students will resent the ubiquitous exam proctor as he casually walks around the room and stays close to people going out for a cigarette. The reason there is no honor system at Harvard is not because the students are immature or dishonest, but because the College has many men and little social compactness. Another reason is that the complaints have never been very loud.

The first prerequisite for a successful honor system is complete and constant support by the student body. A majority of Harvard undergraduates only want to get exams over with, and the process of doing this is quite immaterial. The kind of faith needed, in what to many is a trivial idea, is only possible in a smaller, more homogeneous student group. That is why many of the New England women's colleges can dispense with proctors. Of the men's colleges in which the undergraduate is put on his honor, Virginia is a closely-knit state college, while Princeton and Williams are considerably smaller and less varied in student types than Harvard.

If, when the College is nearer normal, there should be a general plea for an honor system, coupled with determination to enforce it on the student level, it might be put gradually into effect. Such a move could have the advantage of creating a healthier attitude toward college courses and exams, but the result also can be disastrous. The few dishonest people around will stay dishonest and make the honor system a farce unless the social pressure favoring it is enormous, and at the present there is no such pressure. An alternative at some schools that ostensibly have no policemen is a secret service of student council workers mixing with exam-takers and turning in cheaters. In preference to that, most people will be happy to let the proctors stay.