Bollinger responds to students regarding Ahmadinejad

Quotations from President Bollinger at a meeting with student representatives yesterday:

“Some people accused me and others as having used the timing problem and
the … academic context problem as subterfuges for not wanting him to
come because of his views and I said that was not correct,”

“The idea [of the World Leaders Forum] is bringing people of power,
influence, people who are important in the world—for good or bad—and to
make sure that students especially have the opportunity to hear them and
interact with them and its’ my belief that we can do for you is through
this exposure to help you interact with people of significant power in
the world just seeing someone, just listening to someone, hearing the
passions, hearing the answers, and wataching and observing them is a
significant educational lesson and you, being at Columbia in New York
City, especially at the time around the United Nations General Assembly
meeting, have the opportunity to see a stream of visitors through that
seems almost impossible for any other university to match”

“a year ago I wasn't prepared to stand up and say I strongly disagreed
with Jim Gilchrist and the Minutemen and here I am [inaudible] I really
want to stand up and say what I think of the views of Ahmadinejad.
What's the principle on which I'm making that decision? The principle is
that I have to be very careful as president of the university in saying
what I think about speakers, and especially speakers that students
bring, because when I say things it can have a chilling effect on what
students do on the campus, and whatever my views about Jim Gilchrist or
whatever my views about [inaudible] these are speakers brought in by
student groups and I feel that it's important to respect that process
and not speak out denouncing speakers because I'm worried that it would
have an inhibiting effect on this very robust debate that we will have
on campus where different student groups can bring in different
speakers. So I'm very very selective in doing that, and in this case
with the president of Iran and...what it means to the institution to
have this person here I think it's very important for me to say this. I
don't think anybody will be chilled as a result of my saying this. So
that's the distinction.

When it comes to speakers on campus invited by students, I will defend a
strong principle of openness I mean, virtually any speaker a school
invites to come and speak for academic purposes because the school wants
to hear and engage with that person, … because I think that we a campus
where we are incredibly open to confronting ideas, even very very bad
ideas. I recognize that just to have someone come and speak may help
that speaker or those ideas. … I think it would be naïve to say there’s
never any potential benefite, but I think it’s so far outweighed by the
importance of confronting ideas and not shielding ourselves from the
world as it is—that that is the value that we have pitched our lives on.

Bollinger began the event by recalling last year’s invitation and why
this was “Some people accused me and others as having used the timing
problem and the … academic context problem as subterfuges for not
wanting him to come because of his views and I said that was not
correct,” Bollinger said in recalling last year, when then-dean of SIPA
Lisa Anderson asked Bollinger for University support of the event two
days before Ahmadinejad was expected to come.