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In 2002, I warned people about Bollinger. I was told that he would look after the interests of the university and to stop blowing things out of proportion.

On Monday, the presidential search committee cut short their abbreviated search for a successor to President Rupp and selected President Bollinger of the University of Michigan. I humbly suggest that they and the Trustees take a longer look at President Bollinger's record. While he is clearly qualified for the job based on his prior positions, Bollinger's record should disqualify him. Bollinger has used his previous positions to create, implement, and defend unconstitutional codes of conduct and affirmative action policy.

In 1996 and 1997, the University of Michigan implemented a Speech code as part of its code of conduct, which can only be called Orwellian. Certain racial, religious, ethnic, and sexual groups were given protected status. Students could be brought up on charges for comments or actions offensive to members of these groups, or which other believe to be offensive to these groups. Speech codes are an affront to everything a university is supposed to stand for. They punish not actions, but certain unpopular opinions in and out of the classroom. Speech codes are an affront to free inquiry and thought, and ultimately to the First Amendment. Bollinger claims that he opposed the policy, but made no action to do so until the issue came to court. As then Dean of the Law School, Bollinger should have spoken up. Instead, this man who is considered an expert on the First Amendment helped implement the policy. Fortunately, the policy only existed for 15 months before it was struck down in District Court.

However, the University of Michigan's current Code of Conduct retains many of the features of the old code. Students are not guaranteed council during proceeding and the Administration act as both prosecutor and judge. It is an affront to the civil rights and liberties of students. The Michigan Daily, no bastion of conservatism, has lobbied for changes to the policy and maintains a page on it at http://www.michigandaily.com/code/
Unfortunately, this was not the first time that President Bollinger tried to use his position to stifle free speech. While Provost at Dartmouth, Bollinger tried to use vandalism against the Dartmouth Review as a reason to close it.

President Bollinger's history with Affirmative Action is equally atrocious. Bollinger helped implement an affirmative action program, whereby students of certain races get additional points by admissions office. This policy was ruled unconstitutional in March, but the University is still applying it. Whether or not you agree with racial preferences, we should not install a president who has shown contempt for the law and constitution in order to pursue his ideals.

This is not an issue of conservative or liberal, black or white. It is an issue of justice and fairness. It is simply not in the interest of the students, faculty, or the University to have a president who has implemented and defended unConstitional assaults on civil liberties and the principle of freedom of thought, upon which the university stands. We do not need Politically Correct McCarthyite who uses his position to silence opposition. Please join me in urging the University Trustees to vote against President Bollinger.

Sincerely,
Ron Lewenberg
President, Columbia College Conservative Club

Articles on Bollinger:
Being Lee Bollinger
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=3384

The Michigan Daily, hardly a bastion of conservatism has done someexcellent work exposing the code and Bollinger's role.
http://www.michigandaily.com/code/

Prof. Bollinger is still implimenting an UnConstitional racial-preferences system. (Gratz v. Bollinger)
http://www.cir-usa.org/recent_cases/michigan.html
http://www.nationalreview.com/search-results/comment/comment-iannone041201.shtml
http://www.capitalresearch.org/trends/ot-0101.html http://www.bigeye.com/jj030101.htm