But will there be any significant punishment of those who attacked Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist and prevented his speech? And will the new procedures for permitting outside speakers on campus simply be a fig-leaf to prevent those from a conservative point-of-view from being permitted to speak at all?

Columbia University said yesterday that it had notified students involved in disrupting a program of speakers in early October that they were being charged with violating rules of university conduct governing demonstrations. The university did not disclose the number of students charged with violations.

ColumbiaÂ’s president, Lee C. Bollinger, announced the disciplinary proceedings in a letter to the university community yesterday that was also released publicly. But he said he would not provide further details because of federal rules governing student privacy.

The charges will be heard next semester by the deans of the individual schools the students are enrolled in. Possible sanctions include disciplinary warning, censure, suspension and dismissal.

Mr. Bollinger noted that as president, he is also the “final avenue of appeal for those found to be in violation of University Rules.”

The disrupted program, sponsored by a campus Republican group on Oct. 4, featured speakers from the Minuteman Project, which opposes illegal immigration and has mounted civilian border patrols.

The ambiguity of the statement concerns me, though -- were those who were charged the individuals who rushed the stage to break-up the speech? Or did the Columbia charge those who defended the speaker and freedom of speech? Is that why Bollinger hides behind privacy law in refusing to disclose the number of students charged, or even what the charges are?

But beyond that, I'm troubled by the ambiguity in this part of the statement.

Mr. Bollinger said the university would tighten rules governing all student events, and require advance agreements about how events will be staged and who from outside Columbia will be allowed to attend.

In light of the failure of Columbia University officials to invite Gilchrist back, and previous actions antithetical to free speech and open inquiry, I fear this means that onerous burdens will be placed on those conservative groups that seek to invite "controversial" (read that "mainstream conservative") speakers because of the actions of PC Brown Shirts, while letting liberal speakers on with few restrictions because conservative believe in freedom of speech.

Posted by: Greg at 06:03 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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