Did you see the letter that Columbia University President Lee Bollinger is sending around to alumni concerned about the thuggish behavior of leftist students at a recent campus speech by Minutemen Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist? You can read it here. It’s long and full of cliches common to invertebrate college presidents. We’ve heard the same sort of language from UNC Chancellor James Moeser and from Duke President Richard Brodhead. But do you notice what’s missing? Not one word of outrage that the anarchists on his campus ran roughshod over the free-speech rights of an invited guest. Instead, alums are given a lot of support-group, multiculti hogwash like this:

Tuesday, I had the first of what will be a series of intensive conversations with student government and student organization leaders. As always happens, I left the discussion deeply impressed with the thoughtfulness of our students and their commitment to share responsibility for developing our basic principles as a University and for seeing that they are adhered to.

Read the whole thing. It gets worse. Can Bollinger not look at the videotape of the event on his campus and know that what happened should be condemned? Can’t Moeser just say that the attempted killing of students on his campus by a Muslim extremist is terrorism? Can’t Brodhead step up and immediately caution the public not to jump to conclusions before the facts are in? What is it with these guys? Are these truly the best and the brightest?