Morningside Hearts Mahmoud
I wrote a while back that University President Lee Bollinger was destroying relations with Columbia's core group of alumni donors.
"The real money that flows into Columbia comes from elderly successful men who attended Columbia in the 1940s and 50s and who are now departing the scene. These men are usually up from nothing New Yorkers who credit their Columbia education/experience for their success in life and have a fond memories of the university as it was during that time. Any suggestion to this generation of men that Columbia is not what it used to be (and it decidedly is not) in terms of institutional principles will be damaging. Scenes of spoiled brat twenty year-olds running amok and acting like bullies will make your typical big money Columbia alumnus cringe. Rich Jewish Columbia alums have already lost faith in general due to the university's love affair with radical Palestinianism. Will Bollinger now preside over the disillusionment of that core group of successful alumni from the 40s and 50s with his solicitude the of the mindless, immature radicals running herd in Morningside Heights? I think he will. We'll see. "
Now Columbia is going to let Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak during his visit to the United Nations next week. The University already tried to pull off an Ahmadinejad visit last time around, but Bollinger was able to squeak out of it. This time he is not squeaking out of it, but is promising to be real tough on ole' Mahmoud. But back to those rich Jewish alums with lots of money. Will they like Columbia's acceptance of the guy who wants to wipe Israel off the map? I'm not so sure. But maybe that is Bollinger's point, he is sublimating financial pragmatism in favor of free and open discourse. I guess that is a reasonable way to view it, but I simply know my alma mater too well. Columbia simply loves this guy (Mahmoud that is). He bashes Israel, funds terrorists who in the eyes of your typical Columbian are a noble resistance movement, and he likes to stick pins in George W. Bush and the US in general. Ahmadinejad is Columbia's kinda guy. (They would like him to maybe tone down the theocratic homosexual-killing, female-oppressing stuff, but that is no deal-breaker.)
Anyway, should make for an interesting Monday here in Transfat-Free America.
"The real money that flows into Columbia comes from elderly successful men who attended Columbia in the 1940s and 50s and who are now departing the scene. These men are usually up from nothing New Yorkers who credit their Columbia education/experience for their success in life and have a fond memories of the university as it was during that time. Any suggestion to this generation of men that Columbia is not what it used to be (and it decidedly is not) in terms of institutional principles will be damaging. Scenes of spoiled brat twenty year-olds running amok and acting like bullies will make your typical big money Columbia alumnus cringe. Rich Jewish Columbia alums have already lost faith in general due to the university's love affair with radical Palestinianism. Will Bollinger now preside over the disillusionment of that core group of successful alumni from the 40s and 50s with his solicitude the of the mindless, immature radicals running herd in Morningside Heights? I think he will. We'll see. "
Now Columbia is going to let Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak during his visit to the United Nations next week. The University already tried to pull off an Ahmadinejad visit last time around, but Bollinger was able to squeak out of it. This time he is not squeaking out of it, but is promising to be real tough on ole' Mahmoud. But back to those rich Jewish alums with lots of money. Will they like Columbia's acceptance of the guy who wants to wipe Israel off the map? I'm not so sure. But maybe that is Bollinger's point, he is sublimating financial pragmatism in favor of free and open discourse. I guess that is a reasonable way to view it, but I simply know my alma mater too well. Columbia simply loves this guy (Mahmoud that is). He bashes Israel, funds terrorists who in the eyes of your typical Columbian are a noble resistance movement, and he likes to stick pins in George W. Bush and the US in general. Ahmadinejad is Columbia's kinda guy. (They would like him to maybe tone down the theocratic homosexual-killing, female-oppressing stuff, but that is no deal-breaker.)
Anyway, should make for an interesting Monday here in Transfat-Free America.
posted by Donny Baseball at 12:13 PM
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