NY Post: Columbia Is “A Dubious Neighbor”

An editorial in today’s New York Post blasts Columbia University for failing to address “one of the most brazen attacks on free speech and academic freedom in recent memory” in the three weeks since protestors disrupted a speech by Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist on campus. Indeed, as the Post editorial makes abundantly clear, nearly a month has come and gone since the violent brawl preempted Gilchrist’s speech—and “not a word of apology has been offered to those whose rights were trampled, nor an ounce of punishment meted out to the offenders.” Columbia’s continued silence regarding the internal “investigation” it insists is currently ongoing bodes ominously for free speech at Columbia. Instead of using the disruption as an opportunity to establish Columbia as an institution that values and protects freedom of expression on campus, the silence from President Lee Bollinger and Columbia’s leadership is deafening.