PROBATION.  In colleges and universities, the examination of a student as to his qualifications for a degree.

2.  The time which a student passes in college from the period of entering until he is matriculated and received as a member in full standing.  In American colleges, this is usually six months, but can be prolonged at discretion.—­Coll.  Laws.

PROCEED. To take a degree.  Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, says, “This term is still used at the English universities.”  It is sometimes used in American colleges.

In 1605 he proceeded Master of Arts, and became celebrated as a wit and a poet.—­Poems of Bishop Corbet, p. ix.

They that expect to proceed Bachelors that year, to be examined of their sufficiency,... and such that expect to proceed Masters of Arts, to exhibit their synopsis of acts.

They, that are approved sufficient for their degrees, shall proceed.—­Quincy’s Hist.  Harv.  Univ., Vol.  I. p. 518.

The Overseers ... recommended to the Corporation “to take effectual measures to prevent those who proceeded Bachelors of Arts, from having entertainments of any kind.”—­Ibid., Vol.  II. p. 93.

When he proceeded Bachelor of Arts, he was esteemed one of the most perfect scholars that had ever received the honors of this seminary.—­Holmes’s Life of Ezra Stiles, p. 14.

Masters may proceed Bachelors in either of the Faculties, at the end of seven years, &c.—­Calendar Trin.  Coll., 1850, p. 10.

Of the surviving graduates, the oldest proceeded Bachelor of Arts the very Commencement at which Dr. Stiles was elected to the Presidency.—­Woolsey’s Discourse, Yale Coll., Aug. 14, 1850, p. 38.

PROCTOR.  Contracted from the Latin procurator, from procuro; pro and curo.

In the University of Cambridge, Eng., two proctors are annually elected, who are peace-officers.  It is their especial duty to attend to the discipline and behavior of all persons in statu pupillari, to search houses of ill-fame, and to take into custody women of loose and abandoned character, and even those de malo suspectcae.  Their other duties are not so menial in their character, and are different in different universities.—­Cam.  Cal.

At Oxford, “the proctors act as university magistrates; they are appointed from each college in rotation, and remain in office two years.  They nominate four pro-proctors to assist them.  Their chief duty, in which they are known to undergraduates, is to preserve order, and keep the town free from improper characters.  When they go out in the evening, they are usually attended by two servants, called by the gownsmen bull-dogs....  The marshal, a chief officer, is usually in attendance on one of the proctors....  It is also the proctor’s duty to take care that the cap and gown are worn in the University.”—­The Collegian’s Guide, Oxford, pp. 176, 177.