Bollinger Discusses Past in Chat

For President Lee Bollinger, a lifelong academic, Monday’s fireside chat was a change of pace. He colored his explanations of University policy with stories from his past in a strikingly personal discussion with 50 students and administrators at his home at 116th Street and Morningside Drive.

Most Columbia students probably don’t know that their president once served as a janitor for his father’s newspaper, as Bollinger recounted while leaning on a stool, sparking a bout of reflection on his journey to the Columbia presidency. He described his father’s career as a newspaperman, and how it took his family from California to Oregon, where he met his wife, Jean, at the University of Oregon.

“We got married right after graduation,” Bollinger said, adding amid laughter, “You don’t do that anymore, do you? You wait an awfully long time—I think we’d better discuss this.”

He did touch on one major policy question, the University’s expansion into Manhattanville, but addressed it from a personal angle.

Bollinger and his wife are no strangers to New York City’s prohibitive space constraints that drive Columbia to build a new campus in Manhattanville, he explained. They first came to Morningside Heights in August 1968 so that he could study at Columbia Law School, but the couple had trouble finding an apartment. For six weeks, they lived above a bar on 104th Street and Broadway until they found a rent-controlled apartment on 96th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues.

The couple moved into the apartment during the infamous 1968 riots, which was when Bollinger first encountered Columbia’s expansion difficulties. “Columbia had not been able to expand through those decades without a very big fight every time we tried to do something,” he said.

Since then, he realized, “The strategy was find the building, find the space, hope it didn’t become a big issue.”

When Bollinger opened the floor to questions and comments, audience members brought up LGBT issues, fundraising, and the importance of expanding in New York. Prompted by a question, Bollinger defended his decision to invite Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia in September.

Bollinger also attempted to clarify the University’s decision to prohibit the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps from recruiting on campus. The University Senate voted against ROTC because of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, he said, on the grounds that it violates Columbia’s nondiscrimination policies.

Katie Whitman, CC ’09, asked Bollinger why he decided to become University President, prompting another bout of reminiscing.

“I was a perfectly happy scholar,” Bollinger said of his transition from professor to administrator. He first served as dean of University of Michigan’s Law School, left to serve as provost at Dartmouth for two years, and returned to serve as president at Michigan.

“I really needed to fill up my day with some other things” besides writing, producing new scholarship, and teaching, he said.

“Tell me what I should know as president of the University,” Bollinger said, pressing attendees to tell about themselves rather than ask about his opinions and experiences.

A concerned comparative literature major said she has trouble understanding the purpose of the humanities, and said she had seen many humanities-inclined friends “pumped out to be i-bankers.” Bollinger grinned and asked students whether they felt the same way. When answered with a barrage of raised hands, he suggested that students “spend these years doing as many things as you can that aren’t necessarily advancing your life.”

Bollinger also asked students about debt, discussed recruiting students who never thought attending Columbia was a possibility, and said he hopes to eventually provide need-blind admission to international students.

While a participant complained about the lack of “coddling” in University advising, Bollinger volunteered to assume the role of advisor at-large for all students.

“Anything you want to complain about, just write me,” he said.

joy.resmovits@columbiaspectator.com