Submitted by Robert Leslie Fisher, Oct 2, 2007 16:16

Once President Bollinger extended the invitation to President Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia he had the responsibility to welcome his guest politely to the forum. It was certainly permissible for him at that point to indicate his guest was "controversial" for his well known views on the Holocaust, Israel, and other matters. However, Bollinger absolutely went beyond the bounds of decorum in introducing Mr. Admadinejad as a "petty and cruel dictator." (It is also possible he was factually in error since at least legally the position Mr. Admadinejad holds as president is not as powerful as the one held by Ayatollah Khamenai).

Bollinger could have indicated he intended to join the discussion and query his guest about matters of international interest. And he could have even released a summary of the discussion in which he expressed his abhorrence for many of Mr. Ahmadinejad's views. However, by handling the matter in the way he did, he gave Mr. Admadinejad a propaganda victory in the Middle East and did nothing to prove his own or Columbia's commitment to the rule of law and scholarly discourse.

More interesting than Bollinger's bungling of the entire matter is why Columbia sought to invite Mr. Ahmadinejad in the first place. Columbia faculty were divided on the invitation. At least one of its renowned specialists on Iran, a gentleman well versed in Ahmadinejad's views, boycotted the forum.

My own views on the matter are that Columbia saw an opportunity to gain a bit of publicity for itself. The university solons realized this would be a media event, an opportunity for Columbia to garner world attention for its international affairs school and the university generally. More salience for the school would translate down the line into more applications to attend from prospective students, perhaps money from would-be grantors, and other benefits. But the sloppy way the school handled the matter suggests greed trumped reason and the school suffered as the result. Unfortunately, to those of us who have watched the school's antics over the past decades, this debacle comes as no surprise.

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