The spring 2001 semester will undoubtedly be remembered for the Living Wage Campaign's occupation of Massachusetts Hall and the selection of Lawrence H. Summers as the 27th president of Harvard University. In particular, the Progressive Student Labor Movement's (PSLM) sit-in drew national attention to campus, as daily rallies brought camera crews and Congressmen alike to Harvard Yard.

But PSLM induced three-week media circus obscures a three-month chain of events that also held the rapt attention of the national media and kept the campus buzzing.

On the first day of February, Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. '53, a staunch opponent of affirmative action and grade inflation alike, announced that he would issue his students two grades-the grade he thinks they deserve and the "inflated grade" that would appear on their Harvard transcript. Students lauded the conservative campus icon-popularly known as Harvey "C-minus" Mansfield-for his change in policy. But when Mansfield blamed the rise of grade inflation in part on the increase in number of black students at the College in the 1970s, most of the applause stopped.

On the first day of May-a day after University President Neil L. Rudenstine addressed a meeting of the Black Students Association (BSA)-Mansfield got the last word on the issue in The Crimson, criticizing an editorial by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 that refuted his claims about grade inflation.

In the four months between Mansfield's announcement and his final letter to the editor, a campus controversy flared over issues of free speech, political correctness and racial sensitivity.

Members of an Asian student group and other activists held a rally in April on the steps of The Crimson to protest an inflammatory opinion piece written by an Asian-American Crimson editor.

The Crimson also came under fire from conservatives on campus and in the national media when it refused to publish an advertisement criticizing reparations for slavery.

And after calling for Mansfield's censure-and in some cases, for his resignation-the BSA settled for public refutations by Rudenstine and Lewis and for a clarification of his statements by Mansfield himself.

For three months, there were meetings with administrators, rallies, speeches, debates, sit-ins, panels, forums and letter-writing campaigns. And Harvard, as a community, seems no closer to a consensus on the way it ought to deal with public, though unpopular, speech.

Mad About Mansfield

When Mansfield first announced his change in grading policy, his "backhanded benevolence" was lauded by The Crimson editorial staff and students. Even those who had supported his stubborn refusal to inflate grades praised him for not wanting to penalize the brave students who take his classes.

But when Mansfield further explained his position on grade inflation, tracing lower standards to, among other factors, the increased number of black students admitted to the College in the1970s, many were no longer clapping.

"White professors were unwilling to give black students C's to avoid giving them a rough welcome [in the early 1970s]," Mansfield said. "At the same time they didn't give C's to white students to be fair."

Mansfield clarified his position, saying that his criticism was of liberal white professors rather than black students themselves, but to the BSA he had already gone too far.