October 5, 2007

Speech Puts Bollinger Back in the Eye of a Storm

Columbia's president wants to be seen as a defender of free speech, but past disputes left critics with another view

By Robin Wilson

Lee C. Bollinger had the kind of week few university presidents ever do. By inviting the president of Iran to speak at Columbia University, and then delivering a blistering critique of the leader's record as he sat just 30 feet away, Mr. Bollinger brought attention to the bully pulpit of the university presidency like nothing else has in recent years.

But for many professors at Columbia, the event also revived their impression that Mr. Bollinger had bungled earlier free-speech