Bollinger

When an Iranian U.N. ambassador invited Richard Bulliet to travel as a guest to his country, he agreed, picturing tea time with a room full of professors. To his surprise, he found himself as the diplomat’s one and only guest.

In the same week that Columbia president Lee Bollinger addressed the economic crisis in a campus-wide e-mail, several Ivy League peers released statements regarding their own institutions’ financial futures in light of the bleak economic outlook.

If you follow President Bollinger’s logic, the very purpose of the University is jeopardized by its silence on the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding homosexuals in uniform.

In lieu of this week’s Shock and Awe column, the authors have decided to run an interesting letter we received this week.

One spring evening in 2003, University President Lee Bollinger entered a Chinese restaurant with a professor. He exited with a provost in the making.

“It was the biggest shock of my life,” Provost and Allan Nevins Professor of American History Alan Brinkley said about his boss’s abrupt proposal. “I had no idea that it had even crossed his mind to get me to be provost.”

University President Lee Bollinger joined the campus debate on the Reserve Officer Training Corps program in a campuswide e-mail on Thursday afternoon.

The statement comes one day before the University Senate plans to discuss ROTC, and before student leaders hold what will likely be the largest meeting so far on the possible return of the Naval ROTC to campus.

One day before the University Senate plans to discuss the Reserve Officer Training Corps and before student leaders are to hold what will likely be the largest meeting so far on the return of the Naval ROTC, University President Lee Bollinger released a campus-wide statement defending Columbia's decision to ban ROTC, while noting that Columbia is "open for robust discussion and debate."

This summer, Bollinger did spend as much time as he could outside of the hubbub of New York, but he didn’t completely leave his professional responsibilities behind.

The Empire State Development Corporation announced it found Manhattanville to be "blighted," paving a path for the state to invoke eminent domain—ability of government to forcibly buy property from a private citizen—where Columbia plans to build its new campus.

According to University President Lee Bollinger, the year’s events marked a flashpoint in the trajectory of his leadership.