The news that President Barack Obama, CC ’83, would speak at Barnard's commencement this May opened a whole new layer of the sometimes-strained Barnard–Columbia relationship.
In hundreds of comments on Spectator and on two Bwog articles, many CC students were upset that one of their most famous alums would not be speaking at his alma mater in his first trip to Morningside Heights as president, and they lashed out at their peers who were reveling in the news.
In a New York Times article today about the comments, University President Lee Bollinger called CC students' disappointment "completely understandable." Barnard President Debora Spar excused some of the online comments as "19-year-olds writing at 4:30 in the morning." But administrators' statements upset a different round of commenters, who called on Bollinger and Spar to condemn the hateful comments from the weekend.
Bollinger and Spar offered new comments this evening, telling a Spec reporter in a joint statement, "We join in the sentiments expressed by so many of our wise and thoughtful students that disrespectful comments are not representative of our community. Our collective undergraduate student body takes justifiable pride in the uniqueness of their individual schools even as they share so many of their collegiate experiences."
Full statement, plus a roundup of Obamanard in the media, after the jump, and be sure to check tomorrow's paper for a full story from the News Desk.
