The founder of the anti-illegal immigration Minuteman Project, Jim Gilchrist, who was forced off a Columbia University stage last year, will not be coming back for a return engagement at the school. The Columbia Political Union, a nonpartisan student group that had been planning the forum, said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that “it has become clear that this event cannot take the form we had originally hoped it would and could not effectively accomplish the goals we had hoped it might.”

Last October 4, Mr. Gilchrist had to cut short his talk at the school after students from the Chicano Caucus and other groups climbed onstage with banners denouncing the Minuteman Project, which is based in Laguna Hills, Calif., and advocates action to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico.

That event was organized by the school’s College Republicans club. The CPU said in its statement that it had envisioned the event as part of a speaker series, “Friendly Fire,” created by Columbia history lecturer and author, David Eisenbach, who said he was disappointed by the students’ decision. “The health of a free society and a university depends on the free expression of ideas. Only through a free expression of ideas can we reach the truth,” he said.