Twenty-eight years ago this week, Professor Norman Birnbaum of the sociology department, now professor emeritus at the Georgetown University Law Center, submitted a scathing piece to The Amherst Student titled "The value of 'intellectual toughness.'" Professor Birnbaum condemned what he believed to be a lack of academic rigor among Amherst students. "Students, by and large, do not appear to read the national press. ... For those who thought of themselves as members of an elite, they were curiously uninformed," wrote Birnbaum. The piece was a response, in part, to an article and subsequent editorials, regarding his threats to bring legal action against the editors of Scrutiny.

Much like today, Scrutiny, back then, was a publication that advised students' decisions on course choices. At the end of each semester, the Scrutiny staff would gather and publish reviews from students regarding the courses they had taken. The publication included anonymous essays giving an overview of each course and its corresponding professor.

For Birnbaum, Scrutiny's review of his Sociology 12 course crossed the line between honest criticism and libel. Thus, on Nov. 19, Mike Savio and Tari Rago, co-editors of the Spring 1978 edition of Scrutiny, received letters from Birnbaum demanding that they print a public retraction of the allegedly defamatory remarks.

News of Birnbaum's threatened suit elicited this response from The Amherst Student's editorial staff: "Professor Birnbaum's potential law suit ... threatens to stifle the most effective means students have to express opinions about the quality of their professors' teaching. ... Were Birnbaum's efforts to prevail, the precedent thus set would have a chilling effect on the willingness of students to appraise honestly what they felt were deficiencies in certain courses." Many students and some faculty members were of the opinion that Birnbaum's actions would, ultimately, restrict academic freedom.

Birnbaum also expressed his disapproval of The Student's sensationalization of the issue, "Astonishingly, The Student thought that the preposterous report of my alleged intention to sue Scrutiny merited more attention than the serious matter of the College's investments in South Africa."