The phones in University President Lee Bollinger’s office rang off the hook last week, as media from around the world clamored for a piece of the Ahmadinejad action.

Less than 48 hours after Columbia announced that the Iranian president planned to speak on campus Wednesday evening, at least 50 television reporters and 100 print journalists had requested access to the event, according to a University spokesman. There will be only 35 spots for the press inside Roone Arledge Auditorium on Monday—Columbia created a media overflow room—but that hasn’t stopped a media storm from brewing.

The story landed on the front page of the New York Daily News and New York Post on Thursday and has been non-stop fodder for FOX News all weekend. For the second time in less than a year, Columbia is at the center of one of the nation’s most controversial news stories.

Already coverage for the Ahmadinejad story has exceeded that of last year’s speech on campus by Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist, which ended when students rushed the stage in protest, despite the fact that the Iranian head of state has yet to set foot on campus.

Journalists from a variety of publications and news stations have descended on Morningside Heights. On Saturday, an ABC truck with a satellite tower stretching high into the sky parked at Broadway and 116th Street. And while the cameramen for Good Morning America milled about outside Columbia’s gates, Mellen O’Keefe, their producer, ogled the crowds for the perfect interview. When a robe-clad monk strolled by, O’Keefe pounced. “Can we get the Buddhist?” she asked excitedly while hurrying toward him. The man declined to comment.

But many didn’t. Natasha Sarraf, BC ’08, approached the news team to be interviewed. As a Persian Jew, she said she thought her opinion on Ahmadinejad’s visit was especially valid. As she spoke to the camera, gesticulating broadly for emphasis, three bystanders snapped digital photos.

Sarraf told the reporter that she thought Ahmadinejad should be allowed to speak. “Because what our country is based on is the freedom of speech and equality, I don’t have a problem with him coming here,” she said.

Sarraf’s interview didn’t make the cut when the segment on Ahmadinejad and Columbia aired Sunday on Good Morning America.

But John Coatsworth, the acting dean of the School for International and Public Affairs, did appear on the show in an interview with anchor Diane Sawyer. Sawyer quizzed him on a statement he had made in a FOX News interview a few days earlier, when he said Columbia would welcome any notable figure visiting the United States—even Adolf Hitler—to speak to faculty and students.

Coatsworth isn’t the first person affiliated with Columbia to appear in studio for television interviews. At least five students, including Spectator editor in chief John Davisson, have appeared on FOX News shows since Thursday. The interviews, which have been posted on www.youtube.com, have provoked a tempest of online comments and sometimes contentious debate.

Bollinger has avoided some of the fray by limiting his personal interviews. On Friday, he spoke on a local radio show. His staff in Low Library, listening to the live stream on their computers, turned the volume on their speakers up. The Jewish Defense Organization had distributed Bollinger’s office phone number widely, and the phone had been ringing multiple times per minute since Thursday. As Bollinger took the air, there was moment of calm as his deep, steady voice filled the office and resonated off the light blue walls.

Then the phone rang again.

Between calls, the office assistant listened closely to the radio show. When Bollinger defended his choice of inviting Ahmadinejad, she nodded her head firmly in agreement. When the interviewer noted that Ahmadinejad was a skilled speaker, she stood up from her desk and said, “He’s not as good as President Bollinger.”

In the hallway outside of the Bollinger’s office, Columbia Public Safety Security Guard Joey Arroyo stood duty, part of a standing guard that began when the Ahmadinejad hoopla did.

Arroyo said he preferred the calm of the hallway outside of the office to the frenetic mood inside. The atmosphere outside of Low has been equally harried, he said, as security scrambles to keep the “pesky, persistent” media off campus. But he was clearly bemused by it all. “Good thing I shaved today,” he said with a grin. “I’ll look good for my close-up.”

The reporters assigned to cover the Ahmadinejad story are a little less good-humored. They know the story is important, and they want to do a good job covering it. “It would be irresponsible not to cover this story,” said O’Keefe, after interviewing 10 pedestrians about their views on Ahmadinejad.

O’Keefe said Ahmadinejad had captivated the world’s attention and that it’s the media’s duty to report on him. “That’s what diplomacy has become,” she said. “It’s a multimedia event.”

Ivette Sanchez contributed to this article.
The authors of this article can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.