This morning I criticized Columbia President Lee Bollinger for his wimpy language in trying to justify his university inviting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
to speak at a world leaders conference. Well, it looks like he was
stricken with a bout of sanity and common sense rare among college
presidents these days. Eliana Johnson reports in the New York Sun
that Bollinger has overruled one of his senior deans and rescinded the
invitation for Ahmadinejad to speak at the university-wide event. The
bad news is that he will allow him to speak at a departmental event:
The dean of Columbia’s
school of international and public affairs, Lisa Anderson, had
independently invited Mr. Ahmadinejad to speak at the World Leader’s
Forum, a year-long program that aims to unite “renowned intellectuals
and cultural icons from many nations to examine global challenges and
explore cultural perspectives.”In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Mr. Bollinger said he
canceled Mr. Ahmadinejad’s invitation because he couldn’t be certain it
would “reflect the academic values that are the hallmark of a
University event such as our World Leaders Forum.”
Eliana Johnson, by the way, is the daughter of Power Line‘s Scott Johnson, from whom the link to the Sun story came. Johnson will be the keynote speaker at Carolina FreedomNet 2006, the John Locke Foundation’s blogger conference that will be held in Greensboro on Oct. 7.
