[Gopher Broke]

Response I got from my complaint email to the President of Cornell.....

Thank you for emailing me about the invitation of Cynthia McKinney to serve as a visiting professor at Cornell. Although the invitation was extended to Ms. McKinney before I assumed the presidency, my response to you would be the same even if it had been extended more recently.

My role as President is circumscribed by principles of faculty responsibility that are central to our identity as a university. It is a commonplace that, at a primary level, faculty members must be able to discuss ideas freely, without oversight or restriction from the President or Board of Trustees. A direct corollary is that faculty members should also be free to invite others to visit our campus and lead such discussions. When university procedures assign faculty members the power to denominate such an invitation a "visiting professorship," I must respect their exercise of that power.

The invitation to Ms. McKinney was extended by a search committee of senior faculty members that was chaired by an academic dean, pursuant to duly established university procedures. That committee made an academic judgment that a visit by Ms. McKinney would enhance our collective intellectual life on campus. I will not second guess that judgment.

Life on the Cornell campus is marked by open, respectful, and serious discussion about important issues. I fully expect that atmosphere to surround Ms. McKinney's participation in that campus life. For me, the test of whether her time at Cornell is successful cannot be whether I agree or disagree with what she says. Rather, it must be whether our students' developing capacities for critical understanding are strengthened by engaging in discussions with her.

I appreciate your having taken the time to share your disapproval of this decision with me. Whether or not you find my response persuasive, I hope that you will at least find it helpful to know how I think about the issue.


Sincerely,



Jeffrey S. Lehman

[Behind Liberal Lines]

President Lehman came to Cornell with his rep as a leftist idealogue already established. Lehman was the architect of the controversial affirmative action policy at U of Michigan Law School.

[winner3000]

Thank you for posting President Lehman's response.

(The invitation to Ms. McKinney was extended by a search committee of senior faculty members that was chaired by an academic dean).

His response should has clarified for us just how leftist the Cornell faculty is. Again, I doubt very much that they would have invited anyone on the right of the political spectrum. Their grandstanding for freedom of speach and expanded horizons is so hypocritical when they provide Cornell's students with only one sided arguments.