The File

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introductory Letter to the Reader

   1. Introductory Letter to the Reader

      • Serge Lang

      Pages 1-5

3. The Story

   1. The Story

      • Serge Lang

      Pages 6-17

4. A Reply to Lang

   1. A Reply To Lang

      • Everett Carll Ladd, Seymour Martin Lipset

      Pages 18-30

5. The File

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-61

      PDF

   2. The First Year

      1. The Opening Exchange

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 65-86

      2. From Koblitz’s Letter to Lang’s Fifteen Pages of Comments

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 87-104

      3. From Lang’s <i>Comments</i> to the <i>Science</i> Article

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 105-128

      4. From <i>Science</i> to <i>New York Review of Books</i>

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 129-178

      5. The Garfinkel Letter “McCarthyism”?

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 179-194

      6. The <i>New York Review</i> Article

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 195-229

   3. The Second Year

      1. Trying to Settle Loose Ends

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 231-264

      2. <i>The Chronicle</i> Causes a Rebound

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 265-298

      3. From Mac Lane’s Letter to the Editors (<i>Notices, AMS</i>) to Lang’s Letter to the Editors (<i>Bulletin, AAUP</i>)

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 299-324

      4. The Stakes are Raised

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 325-358

      5. The “Ratings” Get Publicity

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 359-386

      6. The AAUP—<i>Chronicle</i> Relation

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 387-424

      7. End of the Second Year

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 425-454

   4. Into a Third Year

      1. “McCarthyism”? (Again)

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 457-472

      2. “Intemperate and Libelous”?

         • Serge Lang

         Pages 473-504

The File is a collection of documents from a major dispute involving a number of American college professors, mainly mathematicians, statisticians,and sociologists. The controversy was ignited by the mathematician Serge Lang's reaction to a questionnaire, "The 1977 Survey of the American Professoriate", distributed by E. C. Ladd of the University of Connecticut and S. M. Lipset of Stanford. The ensuing discussion - in part acrimonious and personal - soon involved a large group of active and passive participants, and included issues such as survey techniques, evaluation of academic work, public and political honesty, and McCarthyism at Harvard.

• Action
• Hochschullehrer
• Questionnaire
• Vereinigte Staaten /Hochschulwesen
• development
• evaluation
• memory
• methodology
• objectivity
• public opinion
• quality
• research
• sociology
• university

• Department of Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, USA

  Serge Lang

Policies and ethics