Ahmadinejad at Columbia

Last year when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in New York, he was invited to speak at Columbia University.

That invitation was withdrawn.

Overruling a prominent dean, the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, yesterday withdrew an invitation to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The dean of Columbia's school of international and public affairs, Lisa Anderson, had independently invited Mr. Ahmadinejad to speak at the World Leader's Forum, a year-long program that aims to unite "renowned intellectuals and cultural icons from many nations to examine global challenges and explore cultural perspectives."

In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Mr. Bollinger said he canceled Mr. Ahmadinejad's invitation because he couldn't be certain it would "reflect the academic values that are the hallmark of a University event such as our World Leaders Forum." He told Ms. Anderson that Mr. Ahmadinejad could speak at the school of international and public affairs, just not as a part of the university-wide leader's forum.

Ms. Anderson's assistant cited an inability to arrange for proper security as the reason for the cancellation.

Since last year, Bollinger has had a dramatic change of heart.

Ahmadinejad has received another invitation to speak at Columbia, and this time Bollinger is on board.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, has accepted an invitation to speak at Columbia from School of International and Public Affairs interim dean John Coatsworth, according to a spokesman.

The event is scheduled to take place on Monday, September 24--the same day that Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly--as part of the World Leaders Forum and will be sponsored by SIPA.

"Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most, or even all of us will find offensive and even odious," University President Lee Bollinger said in a statement. "We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialogue and reason."

So in 2007, Bollinger trusts his Columbia community.

In 2006, he didn't.

What's changed?

Not Ahmadinejad.