Ahmadinejad at Columbia: Bollinger’s belligerence

Welcome, petty tyrant

Earlier this week, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger referred to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a “petty and cruel dictator” and openly doubted whether Mahmoud Ahmedinajad would have the “intellectual courage” to answer the questions he posed. In the history of the World Leaders Forum at Columbia University, no guest has ever been treated with such contempt and disrespect. In contrast, during the same week, President Bollinger introduced the President of Turkmenistan, also an autocrat with a dismal human rights record, with a tone of cordiality expected in a forum with a head of state. Why the difference between the two?

Could it be the massive media attention present at the second forum inspired Bollinger’s belligerence? Could it be because, in the end, Bollinger cowed to the very political pressure he has claimed all week that he was defending free speech against?

These sorts of questions regrettably are not new. This time last year, Dean Lisa Anderson invited Ahmedinajad to speak at the World Leaders Forum. President Bollinger once again succumbed to political pressure. This time, Bollinger un-invited Ahmedinajad on the grounds that he was unconvinced that his comments would reflect the university’s “academic values.” Interestingly, two weeks later, Jim Gilchrist, spokesperson of the Minutemen, an anti-immigrant vigilante group, was not only invited, but personally defended by Bollinger in the spirit of freedom of speech.

Are you confused? So am I. It is also curious to note that a talk by Ahmedinajad last year would not have met Bollinger’s standards of discourse, but somehow it did this year.

The biggest irony is that the “academic values” Bollinger supposedly defended last year are the very values of dignity, collegiality, and open dialogue that he transgressed in his opening remarks. In Bollinger’s correspondence to the Columbia community, he reflected that “this occasion is not only about the speaker but quite centrally about us — about who we are as a nation and what universities can be in our society.” If this is true, what does yesterday’s forum say about Columbia as a university?

As a university, Columbia sees itself as a bastion of free speech and academic freedom. Indeed, this has been the repeated rhetoric surrounding the justification for Ahmedinajad’s visit. However, were these values exemplified when President Bollinger viciously denigrated a head of state in his introductory remarks? Did these personal attacks against Ahmedinajad – which included calling him “uneducated,” “evil,” and “ridiculous” – uphold the standards of discourse that Bollinger and Columbia as a university claim to defend?

While it is easy to blame President Bollinger for this debacle – and he is responsible for his actions – the fact that this occurred points to a larger set of dynamics at work. In the rush to be self-righteous warriors for free speech, many have forgotten that extending an invitation to Ahmedinajad also means being open to what he has to say. Extending the invitation was the easy part. Listening and trying to understand has proven to be more difficult, and more important. Given the dangerous escalation of international tensions with Iran, we may have squandered a critical opportunity to push this debate into a new, more peaceful direction.

To the surprise of many students at Columbia, the forum was manipulated into a politically-charged spectacle which is a far cry from the open-minded, academic debate we all expected. Despite our own rhetoric about the exceptionalism of the university campus, today we realize that we too are vulnerable to political pressure. We too can manipulate a platform to our own political advantage- whether we are pandering to the conservative media, special interests, or university donors. We too have lessons that we need to learn about the essence of free speech.

Maryum Saifee is a student at School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Fellow students Mujda Amini, Jacqueline Carpenter, and David Trilling contributed to this article.