Ahmadinejad Could Threaten Columbia's Guaranteed Student Loans and Pell Grants
Unless you have been under a rock for the last several weeks you have undoubtedly heard of the highly controversial visit by the president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Columbia University. American Jews are outraged and groups all over the country have been protesting in various ways. A Jewish leader in New York today called for civil disobedience as a response.
The visit has lead to so much outrage that congress is looking into the ways that Columbia gets it's massive student loan and federal grant guarantees undoubtedly looking for any way to deny funding or at least threaten to. This is how the United States government comes after you when you provide a soap box for it's enemies. At any rate I consider free speech an inalienable right to us citizens that adhere to our laws. A man who denies the holocaust and openly kills civilians as a means to further a political agenda has no such right. I also sympathize with the criticism of the school for letting Ahmadinejad speak while denying the head of the Minute Men group who have taken border security matters into their own hands because our federal government refused to do anything the looming immigration crisis.
Should students pay for Columbia allowing Ahmadinejad to speak? I don't think so, I don't think they will. I think this is the federal government's way of saying, "You see, we can get to you if we want to." I see it as a warning and I hope that there are no cuts to Columbia's federal student loan and grant guarantees. I believe Columbia to be one of the great academic institutions outside of this reckless decision.
