A FEW weeks ago, the Iranian Embassy called Columbia University and asked it to host a speech by controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Columbia President Lee Bollinger happily obliged. And then the backlash started.
It seems like everyone, left and right, had a cross to bear. New York tabloids had a field day with headlines like "Madman Mahmoud" while the U.S. government was dismayed. Human rights activists deplored the treatment of women and homosexuals in the Islamic Republic and Jewish groups marched against Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial. Finally, William Kristol, speaking on behalf of the right, cried foul that Columbia would "host the president of a terrorist regime
Read More
NERO: The University must modernize the Lawn room application process
By Emma Nero | 11 hours agoStudents vying for a Lawn room are left with the options of not signing an off-Grounds lease on the gamble of being accepted, or putting their name on a lease and risking financial or legal repercussions for removing their name.
LETTER: An alumnus and parent’s perspective on U.Va.’s presidential search process
By Tom Neale | 4 days agoThe critiques of Mahoney and the Board of Visitors are egregious double standards that I believe are motivated by political differences with Mahoney and the Board.
GARVIE: Let clubs be about interests, not interviews
By Adeline Garvie | December 10, 2025The Second-Year Council should not be alone in interrogating these systems, but rather, the University must earnestly recognize the stressors these processes mount on students.
