an article on the Inside Higher Ed website from September 28th.

It’s fair to say that Columbia University has heard more than an earful over its decision to offer a speaking platform this week to Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Reaction ranged widely, with many condemning the university for inviting the controversial leader, others praising Columbia’s president, Lee C. Bollinger, for sternly rebuking the Iranian president while he looked on, and some doing both. Opinions flowed freely.
On Wednesday, one vehement critic, with a prominent platform of his own, went a large step further. U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Californian who is also a longshot candidate (to be generous) for the Republican nomination for president, introduced legislation that would “prohibit federal grants to or contracts with Columbia University.” The text of the legislation — which college officials called “unprecedented” — was not yet available on any government Web sites.

Unbelievable! Do these people not believe in the free exchange of ideas? And while I am on the subject, I have to say that the tone of Bollinger’s introduction of Ahmadinejad was awfully crass. I don’t necessarily disagree with what all of what he had to say, but I think he stooped to a level of discourse that was unnecessarily confrontational and downright rude. As William Alexander said in the LA Times, he gave a bad introduction. That only served to make the Iranian President seem like a gentleman for taking it so gracefully. (You can read a rather awkward translation of his remarks here.)
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The irony is that in the end, Bollinger didn’t even satisfy his critics with this unnecessarily long diatribe masquerading as an introduction. Hunter’s actions show that. And does Bollinger really think that those in the audience would not be able to recognize the absurdity in some of the things Ahmadinejad said? His comments were greeted with laughter at one point! Too bad that both Bollinger and Hunter can’t seem to understand that sensible people don’t need to be immunized against or protected from ideas.]]>