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Jeff: Why did you not post the rest of the article which presents the other side? The last two paragraphs are particularly interesting. Here's the rest of the article...

Not all donors who have spoken on the matter have expressed dismay or issued ultimatums.

Phyllis Mailman and her family's foundation donated $33 million to the school of public health in 1998. Mailman told the New York Post that she thought Bollinger "handled it very beautifully when he certainly disavowed, personally, for the university and for himself, all of the professor's comment, but upholds his right to make them."

Joseph Sullivan, CC '86 and Law '89, is also not planning to make the University choose between him and De Genova. Sullivan, a regular donor who has been one of De Genova's most vocal opponents for the past week, says that he "would like to see De Genova fired." But he says that he will not express his discontent by threatening to stop donating to Columbia.

"I realize it's a large university, and I'm not interested in making any ultimatums," Sullivan said. "I know Bollinger has a very strong opinion regarding tolerance--he believes that it's good to let the enemy and all the kooks make their statements so you can see where they are."

Gray, and others working in the Office of University Development and Alumni Donations, said that the University would not necessarily heed ultimatums even if important donors issued them.

"They'd love for us to fire him, but it's not going to happen," Gray said. "He's protected under academic free speech."

I only posted the first part of the article because that is pretty standard practice here at FR to avoid legal problems ... so I linked to the entire article.

My impression of the editors at the Spectator is that they are pretty liberal themselves. They are going to do whatever they can to paint this a certain way.

But the news here is not that people continue to send funds to Columbia ... that has been going on a long time. The news is that more and more are indicating they will stop donating over this issue. Any of them who were donating and then stop represent a big black eye to the University ... and the more the better until this cretin is fired.

Hope that helps.

"They'd love for us to fire him, but it's not going to happen," Gray said. "He's protected under academic free speech."

What if he had said he hoped all AIDs-infected homosexuals would die? What if he had said blacks are lazy and oversexed? What if he said abortionists are murderers and should be dealt justice? See, academic free speech depends not on being allowed to say things, but what things you say. Attack liberal, left-wing icons with the same vitriol (or even less) that he used against the US and our military will get you canned, academic free speech be damned!

Who is Gray trying to fool? Columbia supports De Gonova's comments as long as he's teaching there.