diff --git a/TODO.txt b/TODO.txt
index 00c67b8e3e2cf4868427f90d02ea45925d445a87..7d351e1382e066d151fa7b323b5e57713907b48d 100644
--- a/TODO.txt
+++ b/TODO.txt
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ Critical
      better output on student idiocy
       x on crazy memory errors, glibc issues, valgrind aborts
       x fix "" failure messages
+      x on EXIT_IF_ERROR crashes
         if compilation fails
    STYLE
    Directory structure for config.ini includes
@@ -51,6 +52,9 @@ Critical
    readFile() bug where lines have ':' or '?' in them?!
  x safer cross-platform exec()
     x setenv("PATH"...) to safe path and use execlp
+   remove all system() calls
+      fix make system() call in monad.cpp - need some varargs or something
+      replace ln -s util/* system() calls
 
 Moderately important
 ---------------------
@@ -63,8 +67,9 @@ Moderately important
     x add mechanisms for custom output checks
    fix sigalarm security hole
    optimization
-   replace ln -s util/* system() calls
    mp1_newtests and lab02_newtests currently have 2 different ways of compiling 2 programs. this should be unified
+   more elegant way of handling mp4's Makefile.1 for part 1 in config.ini
+      possibly have the MP part number be defined when calling make and handle it internally.
 
 Doesn't really matter
 ---------------------
@@ -73,3 +78,4 @@ Doesn't really matter
    fix unknown times, maybe only output timeout
    remove additional output under valgrind
 
+
diff --git a/monad.cpp b/monad.cpp
index 4a13484f46f7f417924ec1da5095f00295d3c939..9d8da779ff157f2a4dd4c55f2b7ac7ad3683882c 100755
--- a/monad.cpp
+++ b/monad.cpp
@@ -76,10 +76,11 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv)
 {
 	using namespace monad;
 
+	output::set_error_message();
+	
 	// Find monad/ directory
 	find_base_dir(argv[0]);
 
-
 	// Read in local config settings.
 	// Necessary to do this early for [SVN Root] url
 	readConfig("./", config);
@@ -89,7 +90,6 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv)
 	cout << "Testing " << name << "..." << endl << endl;
 
 	cout << "Setting up test environment..." << endl;
-	output::set_error_message();
 
 	// Read in test-specific config settings
 	if (mp_part == no_mp_part)
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv)
 	for (size_t i = 0; i < processing_commands.size(); i++)
 		exec_command(processing_commands[i]);
 
-	string makestr = "/usr/bin/make --warn-undefined-variables";
+	string makestr = "/usr/bin/make --quiet --warn-undefined-variables";
 	if (opts::optimize)
 		makestr += " OPTIMIZE=on";
 	if (!config["Make Options"].empty())
@@ -135,6 +135,10 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv)
 	// Compile with make
 	system(makestr.c_str()); // yes, system is insecure if the user has control
 	                         // over config.ini. But students don't.
+							 // TODO (toole1): Yeah but this leaves us open to
+							 // aliasing issues, or forces us to specify make's
+							 // path. Ugly either way.
+	// TODO exec("make", "--quiet", "--warn-undefined-variables", 
 
 	cout << endl << endl;
 	int score = exec("./proxy");
diff --git a/proxy.cpp b/proxy.cpp
index 5cd4e05c41f47e1ebde63475f977a993d782eb44..9e2506a83c1ee338ac92cf042d0982f7c88dcc86 100755
--- a/proxy.cpp
+++ b/proxy.cpp
@@ -53,6 +53,9 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv)
 {
 	using namespace proxy;
 
+	// set up EXIT_IF_ERROR messages
+	output::set_error_message();
+
 	// Set up run-time environment
 	RunTimeEnvironment env(global_tests, global_output_checks);