Columbia and Affirmative Action

Columbia’s new president, Lee C. Bollinger, according to the New York Times today, “used his inauguration as president of Columbia University yesterday to reassert the value of affirmative action in college admissions, to speak of Columbia’s need to expand physically and to press for Columbia’s greater engagement with the local community and the world.” Keep in mind that Bollinger was also the president of the University of Michigan “when it became the target of two lawsuits challenging its affirmative action policies.”