When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Columbia, Lee Bollinger (the university’s president) introduced him by way of diatribe: You’re a dangerous liar and also a jerk!
As previously noted, this was inappropriate in light of the university’s role as a university. Basically, the argument is that Bollinger was speaking in his representative capacity and Columbia should not have official positions on matters that don’t directly affect the university, such as whether Mr. Ahmadinejad is a cruel and petty dictator or whether his Holocaust denial is intellectually bankrupt.
Well, new story: St. Thomas uninvited Desmond Tutu. Apparently some people didn’t like this speech.
Archbishop Tutu was scheduled to visit St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN this spring. The school is saying it canceled his visit/speech because there is a consensus in the Jewish community that his words — comparing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the treatment of black South Africans under apartheid — were offensive.
Yeah, this is a little bit worse. Bollinger said that he didn’t like President Ahmadinejad; by most accounts, decent human beings shouldn’t like President Ahmadinejad. The University of St. Thomas told the Nobel Peace Prize winner not to come because the Israel lobby doesn’t like him. You can maybe argue that it’s okay for a university to have positions such as "human rights abuses are bad" and "the most documented event in human history really did happen." But for a university — even a right-wing Catholic university that employs a torture memoist — to not only take a position on Middle Eastern politics and the Israel-Palestine controversy, but to tell a man that he can’t come talk because he said some things indicating he sympathizes with the plight of Palestinians, well, that’s just disgraceful.
Accidental Blogger 
3 responses to “Schools Behaving Badly (Joe)”
I feel more disappointed by Bollinger’s comments than the action taken by St. Thomas.
Columbia has a higher profile on the world stage and (until now) was regarded as one of the best institutions of higher learning and research. More important, it was a bastion of intellectual freedom and, yes, open-minded (read liberal) thinking.
The expectations from such an institution are far higher than those from a little-known university that has an unabashed religious/political agenda.
So, the tactless statements made by the president of Columbia are much louder, even if they are about someone who is quite easy to demonize, and show how far the best has fallen – one might say, been corrupted – by the right-wing machine.
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Of course the hypocisy that the “university” welcomes ideas is exposed when you remember how the Minute Men were shouted down when they came to speak.
Come on, who ya kiddin?
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Emanuel,
I’m not sure I see your point. For the university to encourage debate and be open to the free exchange of ideas, students have to be free to voice their own opinions. As such it seems to me that the president saying what he said is qualitatively different than a group of students shouting down a racist paramilitary group.
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