The File: Case Study in Correction (1977–1979)

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.