Columbia U.: Campus Gone Wild?

Tag: Columbia U

The college campus, from time to time, can be a politically heavy place. We saw this happen in the 1960s and 1980s and we're seeing it NOW:
Minuteman Protest Gone Awry. YouTube Video Here.

NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Columbia University's president was under fire Saturday after students stormed a New York stage during conservative anti-immigration leader's speech.

Columbia President Lee Bollinger has "got to get his hands around this," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

The Wednesday fracas occurred when Jm Gilchrist, the head of the Minuteman Project, tried to give an address on campus. Students stormed the stage and shut down his talk.

The project seeks to deter illegal crossings of the U.S.-Mexico border and President Bush has referred to the Minutemen as vigilantes.

The incident happened weeks after the president of Iran was invited to speak at Columbia and then told not to come.

Bollinger condemned the student disturbance, telling The New York Times no one "shall have the right or the power to use the cover of protest to silence speakers."

Here's an editorial piece that appears in today's National Examiner:

"WASHINGTON - There is but one thing more disgusting than the video of campus officials and police standing by as student thugs viciously silenced Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist and the Columbia University students who assembled to hear him speak. That is the unconscionable attempt by Columbia University administrators and the thugs to blame the blatant assault on the First Amendment on the victims whose rights were violated, Gilchrist and his associate Marvin Stewart, and the College Republicans who hosted the two men on campus." [more...]

On a lazy Columbus Day pseudo-holiday, the MainStream Media is beginning to pick up on the story, but bloggers (as usual) have beaten them to it! HotAir has a video report, Michelle Malkin text.
The Left End of the Dial blogs from another perspective.