Columbia: Free Speech for Me But Not for Thee

In today's NY Post the paper editorializes against the wrist slap that the university gave to students who disrupted the Minuteman speech last winter. The ironic fact that President Bollinger, an alleged free speech expert, is the man in charge was not lost on the paper, nor was the irony of the Washington Post appointing the Bollinger to a position on its Board, citing his "expertise on a combination of free speech and education issues."

Apparently Bollinger's expertise is entirely theoretical. When it comes to the defense of the practice of speech he doesn't approve of Bollinger weasels out of his supposed principles. So we now have a president who really has no solid grasp of the first amendment, and one who appears hell bent on depriving any property owner who stands in the way of the university's expansion of their constitutional rights as well.

The Post is certainly right to question Columbia's good faith as it seeks to expand into the West Harlem community, saying that the university is "something less than the good neighbor it now pretends to be." Perhaps Bollinger feels that once the university removes all of its neighbors Columbia will finally reach the good neighbor status that it currently pretends it has.