Out of 50 undergraduate students at Columbia University, not a single one felt there was a balance between liberal and conservative voices on campus.
Columbia University President Lee Bollinger asked the question during a “fireside chat” with students on Monday, and no one raised their hands, according to the Columbia Spectator.
“Should we do more to empower conservative voices?” a student asked.
Bollinger said he felt “quite uncomfortable with the university trying to compensate for student advocacy,” however, “should you if you feel there is too much debate that’s one-sided? I kind of argue yes. I think there should be some spirited debates on campus about things and hard issues.”
Another student asked Bollinger how he felt about the active protest culture on campus.
Bollinger said that “as a First Amendment person and as a president,” he believes dissent is a good thing.
“I don’t always like what people say about me or about the university. I think that sometimes dissent can be not just very unfair but hurtful,” Bollinger said. “But stepping back, when a campus community or society is actively engaged, and that includes people feeling strongly about views they want to protest in some way, I think that’s very healthy.”
This past year, Columbia University attracted national media attention through one student Emma Sulkowicz, who carried her mattress around campus to protest the school’s sexual assault policy.
The university even allowed her to carry the mattress across the stage at the graduation ceremony in May.
The student Sulkowicz accused of rape filed a lawsuit against Columbia, arguing that the school allowed Sulkowicz to harass him throughout the year.
Bollinger is included in the lawsuit for supporting Sulkowicz’s harassment campaign.
Bollinger is a First Amendment scholar who teaches a course on “Freedom of Speech and Press” each year to Columbia undergraduate and graduate students. Bollinger is also the author of “Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open: A Free Press for a New Century.”
He formerly served as president of the University of Michigan and is known for leading the school’s litigation in two Supreme Court cases Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, decisions which upheld diversity as a justification for affirmative action in higher education.
