"It just went too far," Jardine says. "InFrance, there is so much misunderstanding aboutdebate on American campuses that to dismiss itwould [contribute to the] misunderstanding."

Both professor says they envision the suit as awake-up call to French journalists.

French journalists' "understanding of what ishappening in the U.S. is often very cloudy basedon hearsay and misinformation," Suleiman says. "Wewanted them to pay attention more."

"We want to take the message to the press andelsewhere in the U.S. that they are welcome todiffer with us and do anything, excerpt lie,distort and misrepresent [What we say,]" Jardinesays. "The press cannot say just anything--that'snot freedom of the press."

Colleagues at Harvard and around the U.S.generally support the decision of the twoprofessors to sue Le Figaro magazine.

"I think they were justified," Berengueir says."In their case, the allegations were very serious.Their reputation was at stake in that article."

"I think that the journalist has been utterlyunprofessional and insulting, and they are rightto sue back," says Denis Hollier, the chair of theFrench Department at Yale. "...But I don't thinkit will solve the very deep misunderstanding thatFrench people have about American universities."

"In fact, I'm afraid it might even aggravateit," he adds.

Catharine R. Stimpson, director of the fellowsprogram of the MacArthur Foundation and a frequentauthor of essays on higher education in the U.S.,also support Jardine and Suleiman.

"I think that the article is slanderous, and Iam delighted that [Jardine and Suleiman] are goingthough the agony of suing--and it is an agony,"she says.

She wrote a letter about Loupan's article toJardine and Suleiman's lawyer in which she says,"The depth of the article's ignorance, thehostility of its tone, and the extent of itsinaccuracies astonished me."

About 60 others, including many of Jardine andSuleiman's graduate students, wrote letters ofprotest which were presented in court.

Lawyer Herve Cren presented both cases in thetrial, but only Jardine's has legal standingbecause Suleiman's papers were delivered two daysafter the statute of limitation on libel hadexpired.

"Our lawyers sent both affidavits to thehuissier, or bailiff, just a few daysbefore the deadline and asked him to deliver bothin time," Suleiman says. "For a reason I have notquite understood, only Alice Jardine's affidavitarrived on time; mine arrived two days after."

Suleiman says that the lawyer presentedJardine's and her cases together and "asked thecourt to see what it could do about maintainingmine in its judgment."