HEARD ELSEWHERE

Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

From an editorial in the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald on Columbia University hosting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

The first thing to remember is that Columbia University says "no" all the time. It says "no" in its admissions decisions, hiring decisions, tenure decisions - and, more to the point, its decisions on who'll be invited to speak.

It should have said no to inviting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, too. Because like studying at Columbia or teaching at the university, speaking in front of a university assembly is a valuable and prestigious thing.

Ahmadinejad is president of a regime that took over the American embassy in Iran, held Americans hostage there for more than a year, poses a direct threat to Israel's existence and is arming America's enemies in Iraq.

He didn't deserve the platform. And the university should not have extended it.

Columbia dressed up its invitation in high-minded talk about dialogue, the academic community and free speech. But again, the college is very selective when it uses that rhetoric and when it does not. For example, Columbia Law School won't let employers on campus to recruit - read, "speak" - unless they conform to the school's nondiscrimination policy, which bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation ...

By inviting Ahmadinejad to speak, Columbia honored him in blatant disregard of his government's actions in Iraq. True, hearing him speak was a valuable educational experience, a Columbia undergraduate said. But did that student and Columbia's self-interest outweigh the raw violence Iran abets against American service members? ...