Columbia Still Roiled by Iranian's Visit

"I have an interest in going," Bollinger said in an interview, "but I decided that it's just not appropriate to send anyone now." Bollinger, a free-speech scholar and lawyer, was president of the University of Michigan before he took the helm at Columbia in 2002. He also serves on the board of directors of The Washington Post Co.

Sick has been particularly harsh about Bollinger's handling of the Ahmadinejad visit and on other free-speech issues that have affected the Middle East Studies Department. In 2004, the school was rocked by accusations from a group of radical Jewish students of intimidation by Middle East language professors. Bollinger appointed a commission to study the accusations but did not give an opinion on the allegations, which many faculty members said were unjustified.

"He obviously wasn't happy that Ahmadinejad was invited," Sick said. "But a day before the debate, Bollinger put out a message to the faculty saying that the visit highlights our belief in freedom of speech and that's why Ahmadinejad was invited. But then he delivered an extreme and unnecessarily provocative attack on Ahmadinejad."

Several professors suggested that Bollinger's stinging introduction, in which he called the Iranian leader a cruel dictator, was designed to impress City Council members who were weighing the university's controversial plan to expand into Harlem. A number of council members had lambasted Bollinger for allowing Ahmadinejad on campus and had said that they would retaliate. But in interviews, these city lawmakers said they did not consider the event when they voted to approve the expansion plan last month.

Bollinger has staked his legacy on the expansion plan, which is in need of millions of dollars in capital investment and is dependent on negotiations with community leaders. New York state has said that it might use the power of eminent domain to claim land from the neighborhood for Columbia, but it is not clear whether that will happen.

Bollinger said that the effects of the Ahmadinejad visit are waning and that he is eager to put it behind him. "I am taking faculty concerns seriously," he said, adding that tenure cases are not being influenced by outsiders.

Staff researchers Julie Tate and Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.