A Columbia Expert on Free Speech [Bollinger] Is Accused of Speaking Too Softly

The New York Times ^ | October 22, 2006 | By KAREN W. ARENSON and TAMAR LEWIN

[aculeus]

Lee C. Bollinger, the president of Columbia University, is a natural in the classroom, guiding undergraduates through the intricacies of the First Amendment.

[snip]

There is probably no university chief in America more steeped in issues of free speech than Mr. Bollinger, 60, a First Amendment scholar.

And yet, in just the last month, his campus has been embroiled in four separate free-speech controversies: over the language in an ice hockey recruiting flier; a rescinded speaking invitation to the president of Iran; a Teachers College policy on “social justice” that some see as an ideological litmus test; and a brawl that broke out during a protest against a speech by the founder of the Minuteman Project, a group that has mounted border patrols to fight illegal immigration.

Critics including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and editorial writers at many newspapers across the country scolded the protesters at that speech and questioned why Mr. Bollinger, of all people, could not keep Columbia open to diverse voices.

“Bollinger definitely knows how to say the right things about free speech, but the question is whether he can walk the walk,” said Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a group that presses for free speech in academia.

Since he took over as president four years ago, Mr. Bollinger has unfailingly defended free speech at each new challenge. But some professors and others say his carefully wrought statements in favor of open discussion often come across as the work of a deliberative legal scholar more than a forceful leader.

[UB355]

Apparantly he has not yet codified hate speech for liberals OK.

[PGalt]

There is probably no university chief in America more steeped in issues of free speech than Mr. Bollinger, 60, a First Amendment scholar.

Mr. Bollinger is a cut-and-run (or paste) constitutionalist. He should study the 2nd Amendment. He'll need it when the anti-1st amendment thugs take over. Back to grade school Lee. Education for Dummies 1.0

[Texas_Jarhead]

"a Teachers College policy on “social justice” that some see as an ideological litmus test..."

I hadn't heard about this so I went and found this article on this topic.

University Policy Draws Fire From Free-Speech Advocates

[aculeus]

Thanks. I had heard of that policy.

[dirtboy]

But some professors and others say his carefully wrought statements in favor of open discussion often come across as the work of a deliberative legal scholar more than a forceful leader.

Sounds like a simple case of Free Speech for Me, Not For Thee.

And if the NY Times is forced to cover this story, it must be getting big enough to where it cannot be ignored any longer.

[dirtboy]

I always wonder about the values of the people who are not in favor of teaching for social justice.

Because your warped-assed sense of social justice is a first cousin of the mindset that killed millions of people last century in the name of socialist utopia.