Conservative Professor Provides Needed Debate

To the editors:

I read with interest the article about the speech of Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 about sex among Harvard undergraduates (News, “Mansfield Decries Harvard Sex Scene,” Dec. 4). As an alumnus of Yale College and its graduate school, I have been wanting for some time to say that I envy Harvard students and the climate in which they live. You not only have a president who is willing to take sides and be controversial, thus in his way honoring the life of the mind, but also, it appears, at least one professor who also credits students enough to share his ornery opinions with them.

Regardless of your politics—and I myself am to the left of Mansfield on many issues—this spirit of debate should be considered a treat, and, sadly, an unusual one. At Yale, the president and his administration have a studious policy of avoiding argument at all costs, instead speaking about important issues—like labor strife and town/gown relations—through press agents and lawyers.

Intellectuals should always be looking for a good argument, trying to keep their students thinking. Rather than being offended by Mansfield’s speech about sex, students should be delighted that a professor is saying something worth quarreling with.

MARK OPPENHEIMER

Redwood City, Calif.

Dec. 5, 2003