And artificially inflating the grades of protesters is not a victimless crime. Colleges give grades not only as an incentive to learn, but also to recognize different levels of achievement; otherwise, professors would have every reason to surprise a class with A’s at the end of the term after all the learning is done. Students have a reason to complain if their classmates who have done less work get the same grade for agreeing with the professor’s politics. It is not for professors to provide academic rewards for outside pursuits, especially if their mercy is selective.

I have no great desire to see the members of PSLM suffer. Those whom I know inside the building are good people and are clearly committed to a cause with which I agree in many respects. Whether or not discipline from the University is in order, they do not deserve special academic punishment from their professors for voicing their beliefs. But neither do they deserve special academic benefit for being inside a University building rather than protesting out in the Yard, or for protesting at all rather than keeping silent.

Professors may empathize with their students, and they may wish for the ability to shield the students from the consequences of their actions. But a professor’s role in the lives of students is under certain constraints of fairness, and Faculty members must not take it upon themselves to be the ultimate judge of the rightness of the students’ actions. That’s Someone Else’s job.

Fail them all, and let God sort them out.

Stephen E. Sachs ’02 is a history concentrator in Quincy House. His column appears on alternate Tuesdays.