Ahmadinejad Will Not Speak at CU

A day after the University invited the Iranian president to speak at Columbia, University officials announced late this morning that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will not come to campus.

Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs Lisa Anderson invited Ahmadinejad to speak Wednesday morning, and he accepted Wednesday afternoon, Robert Garris, SIPA director of communications told Spectator.

But SIPA and University officials decided Thursday morning that it was not possible to coordinate the security precautions necessary to accommodate such a high profile guest under short notice.

"This time of year a number of world leaders do come to speak on campus on short notice. ... It's not unprecedented, but, obviously, the scale of security and logistical issues of this situation would have been much larger than is normal," Garris said.

"The sequence of events was fast enough that we weren't ready to check
with the World Leaders Forum staff before the invitation was issued," he added.

According to Garris, one of SIPA's Iranian student groups approached Anderson and asked that she invite the Iranian president to Columbia. The president of the group was not immediately available for comment.

As the news spread Thursday morning, pro-Israel student group LionPAC and others posted fliers throughout campus challenging students to protest the controversial leader's visit.

"The world will be watching," one flier read, "WHAT WILL YOU DO?"