Yeah, yesterday wasn't a normal day at Columbia. It's not every day that you can only enter campus in two places, or that you have to show your ID at those gates, or that, if you are lucky to be onthe West side of campus, you get to run the gauntlet of hostile protestors calling for your university to be shut down. Also, you couldn't walk through campus without tripping over a reporter, and at one point I must admit that, for fun, I walked in a large circle and got five microphones/notepads shoved in my face before I could complete it. If I liked hearing the sound of my own voice, yesterday would have been a perfect day (wait a moment, I blog; of course I like to hear myself...)

There's plenty of other posts already about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, including here, here, here, and here (the latter ones are from my fellow Columbia students). I wanted to wait a day, to better, well, react to the reactions of the media. There's been some serious misunderstanding, and some downright lies, and a disturbing lack of support from the left-wing blogosphere. It may be longish, but stick with me here.

As usual, Faux, er, Fox News took the lead on disinformation. We all know Fox loves to hate Columbia (I think this is because we're the closest Ivy League school to their studios, and they're too lazy to send people elsewhere). They claimed that students applauded Ahmadinejad's comments, and that there were bitter clashes between groups on campus. The truth is, students did neither. Yes, if you watch the speech, there are students applauding, but there are two caveats to this: first, Bollinger got much more applause, and, second, that was the crowd inside. There were about 600 people inside, many of whom were graduate students from the School of International and Public Affairs. It's an open secret at Columbia that SIPA is particularly sympathetic to people with views close to Ahmadinejad's. One professor, Joseph Massad, has actually written a paper (now developed into a book) stating that homosexuality is a Western concept being forced upon the Middle East. Hardly surprising then that there was applause from some parts of the audience. But had Faux wanted to be fair and balanced, they would've gone outside, where Bollinger's remarks got a standing ovation from a huge crowd of students on the South Lawn, while Ahmadinejad got scattered applause and mostly silence. The biggest reaction to his speech? Like in the auditorium, his claim that there are no homosexuals in Iran was met with derisive laughter. Oh and those clashes? Almost entirely off-campus (i.e. not students), and the only one I saw had a grad student and an administrator or teacher, neither of whom were younger than 35. So much for students clashing. The truth is that the many diverse student groups got together in four days, and created a speaking schedule that allowed all points of view to be heard. Nobody was booed, nobody was shouted down. It was a proud day for Columbia.

More still in extended. 

Of course, many people outside of Columbia then proceeded to find something else to complain about: President Bollinger's introduction. I saw many comments (following Ahmadinejad's line) accusing him of rudeness, of trying to save his job, or of being a Bush shill. These accusations are frankly ridiculous. To those who accuse him of trying to save his job, I was in a meeting of student group leaders the morning after the announcement, when President Bollinger emphasized how strongly he planned to critique President Ahmadinejad. He had planned this speech all along. To those who thought he was shilling, why then did President Ahmadinejad not answer the questions on Israel and his nuclear program staightly? He dodged them, as he has done time and time again. His speech at the UN today further confirmed how secretive the Iranian government wishes to be on this issue. Regardless of whether Iran should have the bomb, shouldn't they be honest about it? Finally, his comments were a wonderful chance to attack Ahmadinejad to his face. Columbia gave this man freedom of speech, and Bollinger was jsut as much allowed to express his views on these issues, views that were shared by much of the student body. It was a great confrontation, directly contrasting our beliefs and values with his. Given Ahmadinejad's refusal to confront the tought questions, it was not only the right thing to do, it was a necessity to show that we do not stand with him.

Discouragingly, I noticed once again that much of the left-wing blogosphere outside of this blog failed students. While the right wing exploded, there was hardly a diary on DailyKos, or a comment on MyDD, or a screed on FireDogLake, or any other name blog. Perhaps some were torn on this issue, but the truth is that, outside of Campus Progress, it is rare that a left-wing blog reports on what students are doing. Sure, they'll write big long rants on women's rights, the environment, health care, Social Security, and Iraq, but education is by and large ignord. Students are forced to start their own blogs. Campus Progress is but one organization, and it is normally an aggregator - if left-wing blogs reached out directly to more students to write on student issues, education would recieve more attention, and students would feel more encouraged and empowered about the reach of their voice. Each would be better off.

One final point about Ahmadinejad's visit: if nothing else, students were talking. I've never seen or heard so many students discussing issues of free speech or foreign policy. When President Bollinger declared the purpose of this invitation was academic, his words weren't fulfilled by the speech itself, but the discussions, arguments, and thought development that surrounded it. In promoting the disputation of free speech and its place on campus, Bollinger won a stealthy, yet complete, victory.