Ahmadinejad to Speak on Campus By John Davisson PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 19, 2007
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, has accepted an invitation to speak at Columbia from School of International and Public Affairs interim dean John Coatsworth, according to a spokesman.
The event is scheduled to take place on Monday, September 24--the same day that Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly--as part of the World Leaders Forum and will be sponsored by SIPA.
"Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most, or even all of us will find offensive and even odious," University President Lee Bollinger said in a statement. "We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialogue and reason."
"Opportunities to hear, challenge, and learn from controversial speakers of different views are central to the education and training of students for citizenship in a shrinking and still dangerous world. This is especially true for SIPA students, many of whose careers will require them to confront human rights and security issues throughout the globe," Coatsworth said in a statement.
Registration for the event was closed down less than an hour and a half. A university spokesman said that 600 people could fit in the event.
Almost exactly one year ago, then-Dean of SIPA Lisa Anderson invited Ahmadinejad to speak on campus during the week of the World Leaders Forum on behalf of the School. Bollinger, upon learning of the event, chose not to lend it the sponsorship of the University as a whole. One day after news of the invitation broke, Anderson rescinded it, but not before many students and alumni spoke out both in favor and against the event.
Several student leaders received invitations today to speak tomorrow with University President Lee Bollinger regarding the event. Many leaders, including the heads of class councils, several club funding boards, and a number of clubs went into a discussion last soon after hearing the news of the invitation to form a statement.
"I think that first and foremost any dialogue is positive, so even though I may not agree with what Ahmadinejad says, I think any dialogue between him … and the U.S. is a positive step," Iranian-American Sheena Shirakhon, CC '08 and a member of Students against MIlitary Intervention in Iran, said of the invitation. "Mostly, that’s the result of my belief that war in Iran … would be horribly detrimental to the Iranain people, whether you support Ahmadinejad or not."
Ahmadinejad made waves earlier in the day when it came out that he had requested an opportunity to visit Ground Zero, but that the opportunity was blocked for security reasons.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
