Bollinger Faces Students

One day after the discovery of a noose on the office door of an African-American Teachers College professor, University President Lee Bollinger faced tough criticism from an audience of student leaders dominated by representatives of campus cultural groups.

Bollinger faced a deeply frustrated and often angry audience, as students accused the administration of being unresponsive and disconnected. At several points, the University President found himself defending and justifying his record on issues such as diversifying the faculty and taking a proactive stance on racial issues.

“My mind keeps flooding with things that we have and are trying to do because I find myself wanting to persuade you that this is a University that I believe you can trust to respond to feelings that you have expressed and ideas that you have expressed,” Bollinger said. “I want you to feel and just to acknowledge in yourselves that this is a place that cares a lot about things that you have raised. ... We really have tried, but I really think we have to talk about that more and do more.”

“Students are tired of hearing what’s been done in the past,” responded Sam Rennebohm, GS and a member of Students Promoting Empowerment and Knowledge.

One student told the President that it was time for the University to stop “placating us with statements or whatever silly things like that ... [and to] re-evaluate these past initiatives because they clearly have not prevented the events of this month.”

Students complained about what they described as the inaccessibility of top administrators last night, and particularly Bollinger’s decision to not send out a University-wide e-mail on Tuesday, which they contrasted with TC President Susan Fuhrman’s visible presence. Bollinger noted that he did release a public statement to news media last night and sent an e-mail to the University Wednesday, but that he did not want to step on the toes of Teachers College.

“We may be two independent institutions, but we are one community; and we stand together in our commitment to oppose the frightening sentiments that lay behind this act,” Bollinger wrote in his e-mail to the University. “Tolerance and mutual respect are among the core values of our diverse community, and all of us must confront acts of hate whenever they occur within it.”

Students also stressed the need for proactive, instead of reactive, leadership from the top.

“My mom used to tell me that water never flows uphill and I feel like we live in a pyramid society where if something begins at the bottom, it’s grassroots, and it has a tendency to stay there, but if something comes down from the top, it has a tendency to wash over everything beneath it,” Jonathan Walton, CC ’08, said. “The futility that the grass at the bottom feels about not being able to reach the top is a deeper and deeper problem.”

“People are upset, people are working together, and yet these things keep happening,” Desiree Carver-Thomas, CC ’09, said. “We are working ourselves to the bone, we are working well together, and we need administrative support.”

Several student leaders said they were questioning their decision to come to Columbia, and that they had heard similar comments from first-years who have seen racist graffiti, protests over a speech by controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and invitations to polarizing figures including conservative writer David Horowitz and Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist in their short five weeks here.

The students in the room tied yesterday’s incident—which is being investigated by the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes unit—to a broader campus environment.
“For me this event is not just a single isolated event, it is about a context and it is about a culture,” said Bryan Mercer, CC ’07 and a member of SPEaK and the Black Students Organization.

This meeting was markedly different from a similar one that Bollinger held with student leaders three weeks ago after Ahmadinejad was invited to speak on campus. At today’s meeting, students were much more palpably angry at and less supportive of the way the University was conducting itself.

The array of students assembled was also substantially narrower, with most participants coming from groups representing students of color. The presidents of the Columbia College Student Council, Barnard’s Student Government Association, the Columbia University College Democrats and Republicans, the Columbia/Barnard Hillel, and the club funding boards were not present. Student leaders learned of the meeting less than 90 minutes before it began.

At the end of the meeting, Bollinger said there should be further conversations and invited students to compile a specific list of concerns to be addressed in future meetings with administrators, a task they set about immediately as he left to teach his class on Freedom of Speech and Press.

The Chaplain’s office and Provost Alan Brinkley plan to hold a common meal tonight at 6 p.m. in Earl Hall to discuss the incident.

Josh Hirschland can be reached at josh.hirschland@columbiaspectator.com.