Posted on 03/24/2005 11:32:27 AM PST by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (AP) - Professors have a responsibility to resist "the temptation to use the podium as an ideological platform," Columbia University's president said, days before the anticipated release of a report investigating charges from Jewish students accusing pro-Palestinian professors intimidating them in classes.
But Lee Bollinger added Wednesday that it was "preposterous to characterize Columbia as anti-Semitic or as having a hostile climate for Jewish students and faculty."
Bollinger made his comments to the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He did not comment on what the report, expected out next week, could say.
Professors should "resist the allure of certitude, the temptation to use the podium as an ideological platform, to indoctrinate a captive audience, to play favorites with the like-minded and silence the others," Bollinger said.
He said that while there should be reviews and accountability at universities for courses and classes to make sure the full range of a subject is taught, it's not for those outside the college community to do it.
"When there are lines to be drawn, we must and will be the ones to do it," he said. "Not outside actors. Not politicians, not pressure groups, not the media. Ours is and must remain a system of self-government."
Columbia University is not a public school, although tax dollars find their way into the school by way of Federal grants, tuition aid, etc. As a Columbia graduate school graduate of many years ago, it is sad to see what has happened to a great university. This process started well before the rise of Lee Bollinger to the presidency. However, Bollinger seems to be leading the charge. But what can one expect from an administrator coming out of the University of Mich? As I recall, he was head of the law school there, and is well-remembered for cramming affirmative action down the throats of qualified law school applicants, thus resulting in a significant court case.
The solution for Columbia grads is simple. I decided back in the 80s, when alumni contributions to one school were being diverted to other schools with "social" programs, to stop all annual contributions. Funds formerly donated to Columbia are now sent elsewhere.
If they had professors whining for a return of slavery, or neonazis, they would be singing a different tune.
Since Columbia University has an endowment of something like $4.3 billion (the seventh largest university endowment in the country), I think it's going to be a really, really long time before any money you withhold from them makes any difference at all.
What's going on in a tiny department, with virtually no students, doesn't have a whole lot to do with the excellent education that students receive in Columbia's well-regarded schools of medicine, journalism, law, and business. Prospective students who can gain admission to Columbia (or any other Ivy League school for that matter) should think long and hard before deciding to go elsewhere simply because they don't like a couple of profs in the Middle Eastern Studies Department or African American Studies or Women's Studies.
With grants, loans, this program, that program, etc., are there any private schools left in this country? At any level of education?
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