Scandal at Columbia University

Thursday, October 12th, 2006 10:41 am by Neal

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This is ridiculous: At the last minute, Columbia University rescinded the invitations of numerous people (75 – 120 estimated) who were, in many cases, in transit to hear Walid Shoebat speak. What gratuitous cowardice and rudeness the Columbia administration has engaged in so as to cover their weak-ass, non-response to the spoiled, leftist punks who haven’t the slightest idea what Free Speech is. What in the Hell is going on at Columbia University?

Walid Shoebat spoke at 8:00 PM last night. At 4:45 PM, Jewelnel Davis sent this cowardly disinvite:

It is the decision of the advising office to Student Governing Board groups that at tonight’s event sponsored by the Columbia College Republicans, hosts to the Walid Shoebat Foundation, attendance will be limited to the invited speakers and their staff, CUID holders, and 20 invited guests. You are receiving this email to inform you that unfortunately, your RSVP to tonight’s event cannot be accepted. Sincerely,

Jewelnel Davis
University Chaplain
Associate Provost
Director of the Earl Hall Center

One of the individuals traveling to the speech was Seva Brodsky, who was assaulted while covering a Muslim Protest in Boston this past July. He was in transit from Boston to New York solely to attend this event. Here’s his letter to Jewelnel Davis:

This is really nice, thank you very much, Jewelnel. Never mind that I am on a Greyhound bus from Boston, approaching NYC, coming to NY with the sole purpose of attending the event, and by chance decided to check my e-mail on my mobile phone PDA, which I hardly ever do. Who needs advance notice anyway, right?

I wonder what prompted you to suddenly change the attendance policy? I mean, I have signed up well in advance (prior notice, hint-hint), got the confirmation on time (hint-hint), and left Boston on time, having spent $50 for the roundtrip ticket.

It couldn’t be due to political correctness, could it? I mean, you wouldn’t be afraid of some outsiders coming to the event from afar so as to get educated, enlightened, and inspired, right?

This, dear Jewelnel, smells of a scandal. Which you are about to have, on account of this cancellation, as well as for quite a few other reasons. Your decision is outrageous, unfair, inconsiderate, undemocratic, anti-intellectual, anti-academic, frivolous, gratuitous, etc. Oh, wait, I forgot — did I mention it was also highly untimely? This decision flies in the face of the First Amendment and everything else that makes this country great.

It’s not as if Columbia U. didn’t have enough scandals already, especially lately. So what’s another scandal? No sweat of Columbia’s back, right?

Well, we’ll see about that last one, won’t we? I hope you have good legal in-house counsel, for you have just made a whole lot of people quite unhappy. I am sure the reporters will have a field day once again. Enter the press …

Unbelievable …

Seva Brodsky
Somerville, MA

Way to go, Seva.

Here’s the first post on this from keshertalk.com. Seva’s letter (and much more on this scandal) is here. Also, don’t miss “Too many empty chairs greet Walid Shoebat” which has a picture of the sparse crowd.

Hotair coverage here.

Little Green Footballs has this post.

Stay tuned as this one unravels.

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UPDATES:

atlas shrugs was there. Here’s the first observations:

Crowd size moderate. Not surprising since Columbia refused 125 people entry. Pity, these were good folks. Standing outside the building in the rain no less. They were people who probably hadn’t the time to retreive their email prior to heading all the way uptown to Columbia in the rain. Disinvited at 5pm. By email. And so they were denied admittance. It was ridiculous and Shoebat was pissed. There were numerous open rows. Once again punishing the right for the left’s self indulged, reactionary and violent behavior.

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