The File

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.