If Columbia President Lee Bollinger and Dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs John Coatsworth are indicative of the entire Columbia University staff, is a degree in any kind from Columbia worth more than the paper useless words are printed upon?

Watching Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech followed by a brief Q&A today left me wondering what exactly constitutes being an academic. Ahmadinejad, as he stated on numerous occasions in order to put himself on par with those who would question him and above the audience filled with graduate and undergraduate students, is also an academic allegedly teaching one class per week in the area of ’science’ still to this day. Would you want an engineer teaching you biology?

What was most perplexing about today’s event was the sheer ignorance shared by both Bollinger and Coatsworth. Bollinger stated he hoped Ahmadinejad’s presumed mad words would alienate him inside Iran, which immediately told me Bollinger had never seen Ahmadinejad speak outside of Iran or realized there isn’t exactly a free press, freedom of speech or an actual voting democracy inside the country Bollinger wished would shun Ahmadinejad.

Coatsworth lobbed some probing questions, but his one follow-up question was simply batted away by Master of Deception. That term of endearment for Ahmadinejad is written in half jest, as the Iranian president speaks crystal clear within his own borders yet turns one question asked towards himself into upwards of twenty outside the comfy confines of whatever palace he calls home in Tehran.

Coatsworth asked Ahmadinejad if he supported the destruction of the state of Israel. Ahmadinejad, squinting and half-smiling as he coyly answers, “we love all nations.” We know that not to be the case and he routinely stands in front of crowds chanting “death to America,” “death to Israel” and “death to England.”

But the devil is in the details of his response, details Coatsworth and the rather dimwitted crowd present never seemed to grasp. Ahmadinejad never actually says the word ‘Israel,’ for he believes there is no such state known as Israel. He repeatedly refers to the land as Palestine, stating he wants to open up the entire populace living in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories to a vote which receives a round of applause from the audience.

Did those in attendance not understand what just was pulled over their eyes? Surely the same institution which prided itself in being a beacon of free speech actually knows the difference between a debate and a whitewash, no?

Coatsworth also asked Ahmadinejad if Iran supported terrorist groups, which in itself was a question anyone with any knowledge of the Iranian state’s actions knows the answer to and anyone with any knowledge of Ahmadinejad knows how he will answer said question.

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