Columbia To Be Fucked Tomorrow
According to the Spec's newly minted "Ahmadineblog" -- we'd take more time to make fun of that, but too much stuff at the moment -- up to 10,000 protesters are expected tomorrow at Columbia's Low Plaza in response to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speaking engagement.
Things are getting nasty on all sides, and the New York City Council has anted up its pressure on the school. After requesting that President Lee Bollinger rescind the Iranian President's invitation, City Councilman David Weprin asks "that the Board of Trustees of Columbia University intervene and force President Bollinger to rescind the invitation."
The Bwog and Spec staffs will be freaking the fuck out all day tomorrow (love you guys), and Spec's website may or may not work. We'll have some posts of our own, too, with reporting from Columbia students.
After the jump, some ominous photos from the night before. Thanks to Columbia's J.D. Porter for these shots, and he'll be back midday tomorrow for a pre-lecture post. This means fuck Nick and Chris' talky thing.
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September 23rd, 2007 at 9:16 pm
people should check their spelling before mass printing flyers.
September 23rd, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Well, I hope all hell breaks lose. I just saw “Across the Universe” and loved it. (I am kinda pissed off they did not write Brown in the script, though.) I hope Columbia students can recreat the fucking havoc they caused in their campus during the Viet Nam war. It could only be fitting for a right cause.
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:42 pm
why not just hear what he has to say? protest after if you don’t like it. You’re in an institute of higher learning… controversial speakers provide the best food for thought.
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Where is the spelling error?
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:56 pm
yeah where it at, bro?
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:23 pm
The problem isn’t that this guy is Hitler with more facial hair.
The problem is that Columbia bans ROTC from campus because of their discrimination against homosexuals…meanwhile this guy is president of a country that HANGS them and he is still allowed to speak.
If Hitler Jr. is allowed to come to Columbia, then the people who will fight him should be allowed to come too.
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:44 pm
i think he read the sign from top down, in which women’s seems out of place (not to mention the poster no longer makes all that much sense).
in other news, columbia is not letting people without columbia id cards, so the protest is taking place on broadway and *not* low plaza.
this should be interesting… i’m skipping class to see this.
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:48 pm
ROTC is allowed to come to campus. They are not allowed to RECRUIT at campus.
I’m assuming that Ahmadinejad also will similarly be barred from recruiting on campus. But don’t quote me on that. :)
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:49 pm
the columbia students protest will be on low plaza. it’s the outside protestors who will be on broadway.
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:56 pm
SPOT ON bro. Anyone who still thinks Columbia actually supports ROTC is an idiot.
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:58 pm
“On the news, at Columbia University, interviewing students—fresh-faced, naïve fools, fetishizing “debate” with a beast who will celebrate their deaths, and use their idiocy to bring it about.” Columbia, you guys ARE fools.
September 24th, 2007 at 1:20 am
Keggy, what you’re saying just doesn’t make any sense. We’re all “fresh-faced, naive fools,” ok, that’s a common enough charge, leveled at a lot of college students.
But come on. I’m having trouble understanding your sentence, but from what I gather, you’re saying that Ahmadinejad is going to use our own idiocy to bring about our deaths. That doesn’t make any sense. I’m not afraid for my life tomorrow.
That’s the problem when you start calling a respect for intellectual conflict “fetishing debate.” You end up with stupid views that don’t make any sense.
There’s no question about it, Keggy, you’re the fool here. Ahmadinejad is not a good guy, and you’ll hear us shouting that tomorrow, but to simply close your eyes to everything you don’t like is to invite ignorance.
September 24th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Mao Zedong killed more than 40 million Chinese — by both western and chinese estimates. If today were during the Cultural Revolution in the 60’s, during which another 2-4 million perished and if Mao were willing to speak at Columbia, should he be turned down? According to those who protest against this Iranian president, by all accounts, a dangerous dictatorship, the answer to Mao would have been NO to Mao. And that would have been totally mindless — as mindless and stupid as the protestors.
September 24th, 2007 at 8:28 am
Kudos to Bollinger for having the cojones to host Ahmadinejad, knowing full well just how much shit the conservative media will give him for it. Especially after the recent Rahmatullah Hashemi brouhaha, I’m somehow sure that most other Ivy League presidents would not have done it for fear of negative publicity (and the impact that it could have on alumni donations).
September 24th, 2007 at 8:32 am
On second thought, Columbia is the only Ivy that could have hosted him because, from what I understand, he’s supposed to remain within a 25-mile radius of the Columbus Circle for the duration of his stay. But the point made in the previous post still stands – even if the others could, they probably wouldn’t have.
September 24th, 2007 at 8:44 am
bit of post hoc there; any school could have hosted him. he’s supposed to be within 25 miles of columbus circle because he’s going to columbia. had he gone to cambridge, it would have been a 25 mile radius from harvard square.
September 24th, 2007 at 8:48 am
I like how you’ve wasted bandwidth by having a 1MB image of the plaza… that is out of focus. How about cutting that down to 100k or less, Sparky?
September 24th, 2007 at 8:55 am
yeah, i don’t actually know anything about technology
September 24th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Columbia: the ivy with balls enough to have the whole Gilchrist episode last year, then invite Ahmadinejad this year. I just can’t wait to see who shows up NEXT year.
September 24th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Don’t confuse ROTC with military recruiters (e.g. JAG or Military Doctors) the only Ivy Schools that allow ROTC (undergraduate commissioning programs akin to the military academies) on campus are Cornell and Princeton. The rest of the schools kicked them off during Vietnam. Summers @ Harvard had the balls to try to bring it back, alas we all know the story there. Don’t think Bollinger is making any such moves.
September 24th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Are you saying inviting Gilchrist was bad but not as bad as inviting Ahmadinejad, therefore the school’s selection of invited people is getting worse? Or are you saying there is some hypocrisy because last year a protest unexpectedly went south and today there is obviously no protesting against Ahmadinejad and the chance of something unexpected happening is zero?
September 24th, 2007 at 11:15 am
I would like to see Columbia students to have some balls and did what they did last year to Gilchrist. That’s the hypocrisy of this whole thing. I DARE YOU TO STORM THE STAGE AND KNOCK TABLE
September 24th, 2007 at 11:18 am
I would like to see Columbia students to have some balls and did what they did last year to Gilchrist. That’s the hypocrisy of this whole thing. I DARE YOU TO STORM THE STAGE AND KNOCK TABLES AND CHAIRS LIKE YOU DID THEN! If you don’t, you will prove to be a bunch of hypocrite spineless bastards. (Of course you will likely be shot in the process, but at least you will be consistent with your behavior…)
September 24th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
“Don’t confuse ROTC with military recruiters (e.g. JAG or Military Doctors) the only Ivy Schools that allow ROTC (undergraduate commissioning programs akin to the military academies) on campus are Cornell and Princeton.” Dartmouth has an ROTC.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
from your own beloved school’s website: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rotc/
” Although once an integral part of the Dartmouth culture, the Army ROTC program was forced off campus during the Vietnam conflict due to protest from the student body. The program returned in a limited capacity in the 1980s with an Army instructor from Norwich University (the birthplace of ROTC) coming down to Dartmouth several times a week to teach classes.”
Cornell and Princeton have military science departments will full cadres of military officers on staff, not borrowed from other schools.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Just to be clear, from the Army’s own website:
http://www.goarmy.com/rotcFindSchools.do?location=VT&schoolName=#s0
“Students at the following schools can take Army ROTC classes through the program at Norwich University :
Dartmouth College”
September 24th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I’m very proud of Columbia for doing this. Sure, this guy is horrible, but that’s what makes him interesting. President Bollinger is a free speech scholar, so of course he’s going to be in favor of such an event, and I don’t diagree with him.
Naturally students will protest, because they protest everything. Oh, I miss Columbia.
September 24th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Learn to read. “Although the ROTC was kicked off campus in the Vietnam era, it did return — less prominent and less subject to controversy than before — in the mid 1980s.”
September 25th, 2007 at 6:21 am
Dartmouth DOES NOT have ROTC programs – you must use the programs at Norwich to obtain your commission (go ask one of your classmates enrolled). The same goes for Harvard through MIT. Just to be clear, from the Army’s own website:
http://www.goarmy.com/rotcFindSchools.do?location=VT&schoolName=#s0
“Students at the following schools can take Army ROTC classes through the program at Norwich University : Dartmouth College”
September 25th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Dartmouth has an ROTC program. It’s called: Dartmouth ROTC.
September 25th, 2007 at 11:30 am
@Dartmouth… you have no ROTC program, your cadets must enroll through Norwich. If you have a program, where is your Department of military/naval/air sciences? You don’t have them. You kicked your military cadres off campus 30 years ago. Dartmouth students can get a commission just like Harvard students at MIT, Columbia at Fordham, etc – through “cross town” programs. In your case, your cadets are hosted through Norwich. Conversely, Princeton and Cornell have Military / Naval Science departments (full time military officers given temporary faculty rights and titles, but paid through the US Military) – and like DARTMOUTH students, cadets from the College of New Jersey / Ithaca College can cross enroll at Princeton / Cornell respectively to obtain their commissions as 2LT’s or Ensigns.
September 25th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
@US Army Officer: there is an ROTC program at Dartmouth. It’s called Dartmouth College ROTC. From the Dartmouth Review: “In an article for the Review, Dartmouth Professor Emeritus of English Jeffrey Hart credited former College President David McLaughlin with enraging the faculty ‘by returning ROTC to campus, ordered to do so by the Trustees, who, like most Americans, did not see the U.S. Army as the enemy.’” In the same article: “Dartmouth’s ROTC program was once much larger. But the College is not alone in its declining enrollment. Goth explained, ‘During the early ’90s during the big draw-down of the Armed Forces, many ROTC programs were closed and their students cross-enrolled in other schools’ ROTC programs. This is what happened at Dartmouth.’” From advocatesforrotc.org: “Dartmouth: (Army ROTC: on campus, officially through ‘an extension school for Norwich University’, but the Professors of Military Science have Dartmouth faculty appointments).” Is Dartmouth’s ROTC program small and limited? Yes. Is it cross-enrolled with Norwich University? Yes. Does that mean that it does not exist? No.
September 25th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Also, from the official Dartmouth web site: “Q: Does Dartmouth have an ROTC program? A: Yes, Dartmouth undergraduates have the opportunity to participate in the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program. About 10 students participate annually in Dartmouth’s ROTC program and an Army officer’s commissioning ceremony is held before graduation each year.”
September 25th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I think we could both argue that we are in the right. Kudos for some members of Dartmouth community for trying to bring it back (there is a similar group at Harvard). Unfortunately I highly doubt that Harvard or Dartmouth will ever get their own full ROTC Battalions/Detachments as it is much more cost effective to keep this cross enrollment process in place. I argue this point vociferously because most of the Ivy League has little interest or knowledge in this critical facet of the US Government – yet the military is in desperate need of Ivy values of intellectual discourse and creativity. It is well accepted in the military community that these values are often what makes our force so effective. Unfortunately, the distance between the Ivies and the military community is often characterized by a great divide, one that was recently exemplified by this little gem http://www.ivygateblog.com/blog/2007/09/the_truth_about_barnard_college_1.html
September 25th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I would tend to agree, too. Of course, I can’t blame any community for hesitating to offer tacit or implied consent with regard to some of the more dubious policies of the U.S. military. Defense in the U.S. is highly mismanaged, either by incompetence or by outright corruption; while this is an argument in favor of having bright minds engage with the issue, it’s also a convincing explanation for the cynicism and lack of enthusiasm with regard to the government and to the military in more educated circles. Of course, if you throw enough money and the promise of prestige at an Ivy League student, you’ll have him licking your boots in no time.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Dubious policies? The executive branch makes policy, validated by the legislature. DOD makes regulations. No gays in the military? Guantanamo Bay? Thank Ivy league alumni: Bush (Yale) grad, Rumsfeld (Princeton) and Wolfowitz (Cornell) While you are at it, go take Gov 101 and learn a little about how our system works.
September 25th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
@keggy is weeping: in all of your pointless blustering, you seem to have completely missed the point. I never claimed that any aspect of government alone defined military policy. I said that defense in the U.S. is highly mismanaged. So, you can take your half-witted and irrelevant civics lesson elsewhere. I would also be interested in learning how you were able to draw a connection between “bright minds” and Bush, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz. I think that they might fall under a category that I already specified: that of Ivy League students who will do anything for money and prestige. To be quite honest, weeping Keggy, I’m not sure if you even read my post, or to which person you are responding; you seem to be launching self-congratulatory tirades into the abyss.
September 25th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You, Keggy? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Dartmouth and you curse the military. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that the death of Dartmouth’s pride, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because, deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said “thank you” and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand at post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:52 am
Sir, you just gave a civics lecture to a giant talking keg.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:29 am
He just plagiarized “A Few Good Men.”