Congress Targets CU’s Funding Over Ahmadinejad Visit

Politicians from near and far have had more than a week to cool down after voicing their opinions on Columbia’s invitation to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at this year’s World Leaders Forum, but some of them still hold on to—or have acted on—their pre-speech words.

Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of California has even introduced into Congress the “Restore Patriotism to University Campuses Act,” a bill with a deceptively general name whose expressed purpose is “to prohibit Federal grants to or contracts with Columbia University.”

“While I am a strong proponent of free speech, providing this platform to President Ahmadinejad as he continues sending munitions into Iraq to be used against U.S. troops while also racing to acquire a nuclear weapon, only lends credibility to his actions and continued antics,” Hunter, who is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president, said in a statement supporting his bill.

A spokesperson for Hunter said the bill is partly a symbolic move and it would be up to the House’s Committee on Education and Labor to bring it to the floor, but that Hunter “is prepared to go to the floor to defend this legislation.”

Local Rep. Charles Rangel said through a spokesperson that the bill has a slim chance of moving through the House, and even if it did come up for a vote, the Congressman would never support it.

“As witnessed by President Bollinger’s own comments, just because someone is invited to speak on a campus, doesn’t mean that that university is supporting or even condoning that Speaker,” Rangel said in a statement. “To penalize Columbia in such a way would start our federal government on a very slippery slope of censorship.”

Closer to home, Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of the Lower East Side, who told the New York Sun that inviting Ahmadinejad to campus would legitimize him, still stands by his statement that future state funding requests from Columbia should be “carefully and closely examined,” according to a spokesperson.

“...this [Columbia’s] cavalier attitude would be something that people would recall,” Mr. Silver told the Sun. “Obviously, there’s some degree of capital support that has been provided to Columbia in the past. These are things people might take a different view of ... knowing that this is that kind of an institution.”

In the fiscal year ending in 2005, Columbia received $603,622,000 in funding from all levels of government. The University receives state funding for a number of initiatives, such as the Tuition Assistance Program, two nanotechnology centers, and a computer center that supports cancer research

Silver’s spokesperson noted that the Assemblyman’s comments did not apply to student financial aid.

Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell, D-Morningside Heights, was not available for comment Thursday.

Sara Vogel can be reached at sara.vogel@columbiaspectator.com.