Word: mansfields
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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President Neil L. Rudenstine issued a statement yesterday that, while never mentioning Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield '53 by name, flatly rebutted his recent comments linking grade inflation to the influx of black students in the 1970s...
...Rudenstine also praised the "consideration and respect" with which those who disagreed with Mansfield expressed their views. At the same time he emphasized the University's commitment to freedom of expression...
Those who would so viciously attack Mansfield and call for a university censure owe the campus a more coherent account of what they take Mansfield to have said, how they derive this interpretation from the words that he uttered, and why what they take him to have said makes him worthy of censure...
According to the Registrar's statistics, courtesy of Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield '53, nearly 75 percent of the grades distributed at the College last year were B-pluses or better. More than half of those marks were A-minuses or A's. And most of us felt that we had earned those grades. Our performance in high school made us accustomed to ranking at the top of our class, even if that class resides in Harvard Yard. But even Harvard students should not be able to perform that well by Harvard standards--assuming such standards exist...
...unfortunate that Mansfield could not help clouding the issue by attributing Harvard's grade inflation to affirmative action programs. Last week, during a Government 1061 lecture, Mansfield himself noted that history is often nothing but a collection of mere "details" that detract from the larger issue at hand. Indeed, the issue at hand is that of grade inflation, and it matters not how Harvard College found itself in this predicament. What matters is admitting its existence, convincing ourselves of its dangers and resolving to reverse the trend...