Posted on 10/10/2006 8:52:24 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
To: President Lee Bollinger, Columbia University
I thought of writing you a letter, but my experience with people as important as you is they seldom answer their mail. So I thought it better to make this a public letter. Those who agree with me can make copies of this and send them in.
Let’s review. On 6 October, there was a planned speech by three representatives of the Minuteman Project, an organization which believes that immigration should be legal, and that illegal immigration should be stopped. They were invited by a recognized student group, and Columbia said it would take care of security.
Protesters of various stripes came to the speech, loaded for bear. When the first man spoke, protesters shouted “nigger” at him. (For some odd reason, the New York Times didn’t report this little wrinkle. You do know that is a very offensive word, don’t you?)
Next to speak was Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project. The protesters rushed the stage, stole his speech notes, and snatched his glasses off. They then crowded the stage with several banners; one said in Arabic and Spanish, “No one is illegal.” Again, the Times was reluctant to report accurately. It only said the banner was “in several languages." One concludes that the reporter couldn’t recognize those languages.
At least two Columbia University policemen were present. I saw them with my own eyes on TV. The police did nothing to stop the takeover of the stage. Mr. Gilchrist couldn’t speak. Your intrepid constables then “took charge” and shut down the event, forcing the 350 people present – most who came to hear the speakers -- out of Roone Arledge Auditorium.
You issued a lame statement about freedom of speech the following morning, and announced that there would be “an investigation.” Today, some of your students held a press conference to justify their actions because the Minutemen didn’t “deserve” to speak.
Does that cover the waterfront?
As far as the investigation is concerned, you do have a VCR, don’t you? Your Assistant can pop in tapes of the speech and press conference, and push the start button. The question is what are you going to do about it?
Do I have to remind you of the purpose of a university, yours or anyone else’s. It is a place where unfettered research leads to advances in human knowledge, and where such ideas are debated in a free speech environment. You have exactly two functions, One is to maintain that university environment. (The other is to raise the money to pay for ir.)
In short order you’ll have a list off students who violated the policies of Columbia by shutting down a public forum. You should also find out why your police did not act. If it on their own initiative, they should be fired. If because of policy set above them, the head of your police should be fired. If the policy goes all the way to the top, maybe you should be fired.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
What should you do with these students? Every last one of them should be at least suspended for a year.
I have experience with such actions. My older brother was suspended from Yale for violation of University policies. A high school classmate was also suspended from Princeton for a year. In both cases, they’d completed their degrees and were awaiting graduation. In case you’re interested, both infractions were minor at the time, and no violation today.
One concerned cutting too many classes. The other involved having a women in his room. In today’s environment, attendance isn’t kept. And all students are free to have consenting mammals in their rooms. But I digress.
Last Friday at Columbia some of your “students” acted like a group home for juvenile delinquents when the director of the home goes out for lunch. If you do not throw these “students” out, then the Trustees should throw you out. And if the Trustees don’t throw you out, then the alumni should throw them out, by triggering the fund-raising bomb.
While we’re on the subject of bombs, given their politics it’s likely the same demonstrators will call on the US to negotiate with Kim Song Il of North Korea. While those students are on involuntary sabbatical, you might suggest they read a good text on the First Amendment, and another on Chamberlain’s negotiations with Hitler which produced “peace for our times,” aka World War II.
No need for you to respond to this. I trust the national press will report what you do, and what is done to you as a result.
Go Ivy League,
John Armor, Yale, ‘64
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About the Author: John Armor is a lawyer specializing in constitutional law, who may again be a candidate for Congress in the 11th District of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
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John . Billybob
It's not really Bollinger's fault that the students and faculty at Columbia are neo-Marxist fools.
Actually, they should all be expelled.
Nice letter. Glad it was released to the public.
Bollinger is a weasel and a liberal. He's also politically correct. He will no nothing about this. Columbia is home of fascist liberal thugs.
Thomas Piatak (e-mail on NRO 'the corner') wrotes in:
"John—-You are absolutely right to nominate Bollinger as Weasel of the Year. I went to the University of Michigan Law School when he was the dean there. The year before he became dean, a student singing group sang several Christmas carols at the school's end of semester gathering. After Bollinger became dean, he told the chorus that they could not perform any Christmas carols or even any songs that mentioned the word 'Christmas.' One of the banned songs was Mel Torme's 'The Christmas Song.' Bollinger confessed that he was rather fond of the song, but felt the need to ban it because it ends by wishing everyone a 'Merry Christmas.' If the song had only mentioned Christmas in passing at the beginning, he might have allowed the students to sing it, but the provocative ending was just too much to bear.
"Instead of Christmas music, we got to hear some awful contemporary music inspired by 'Antigone.' As a friend remarked at the time, 'It's beginning to look a lot like Thebes.'
"Bollinger was always doing stuff like this, which is why those of us in the Michigan Federalist Society (including the redoubtable Ann Coulter, one year ahead of me at Michigan) called Bollinger 'Dean Bolshevik.'"
Anyone who sends their son to Columbia is out of their minds. The school has a policy where anonymous female students can charge a male student with sexual harrassment. This may include bumping into them and they're taking offense. The male student may not know the nature of the charges against him, no cross examination, nor is he entitled to legal representation. Very Kafkaesque.
Well said... as usual...
Well, it is a sort of freudian slip. For example, whenever I am using the expression "big shots", "big sh*ts" comes out automatically.
Bollinger is at best inept, way over his head. I wonder if he realized what a laughing stock he has become to many.
Panty wearing University President bump.
Gee, d'you think Keith Olbermann will name Bollinger "Worst Person in the World" any time soon?
That's a pretty good description of Bollinger. Interestingly, I also went to the UofM Law School, though years earlier. Bollinger was just a professor at that time.
Sadly Bollinger has a long history of accepting and excusing such violent anti-social behaviour. Clearly the Board of Trustees of the University are satisfied with his lack of control over the violence.
Clearly new leadership is needed at Columbia and Bollinger needs to go.
Bollinger is a neo-Marxist fool himself, as others here have pointed out.
Good letter, John. I didn't know you were an Eli. My son is dying to go to Princeton!
Many years ago, one of our student interns came in bragging how well he had done on his GRE's....He had gotten a 1250, and I was impressed, until he reminded me that that was for 3 parts -- Math, Verbal, and Analytical -- rather than 2. I told him that his scores were on the low end of mediocre. One of his fellow students, with whom I dealt on several occasions, although he did not actually work for us, went to the same school. I did not think he was as bright as Mr. 1250 -- but then his mentor comes in bragging that he got this fellow a graduate assistantship at Columbia. I tried to squeeze out of the mentor and the student what the GRE scores were. All either of them told me was that they were "good."
So no, I don't believe that Columbia has high academic standards at all.
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