When Columbia University invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak on its campus Sept. 24, the institution welcomed a man who openly opposes United States foreign policy, suppresses the voice of intellectuals and dissidents in his country and denies that the Holocaust happened.
But even as Ahmadinejad came to the New York City campus engulfed in national attention, booed by faculty, students and spectators and harangued by Columbia President Lee Bollinger, the world leader's speech raises the question of whether colleges-including Duke-should invite divisive figures to speak on its campus.
"Duke should be willing to have speakers as controversial as the president of Iran," said Professor of Law Erwin Chemerinsky. "I think that all viewpoints, even extreme ones, should be expressed on campus-but it doesn't mean the campus itself cannot speak out."
He added that he applauds both Bollinger's handling of the event and the way Columbia students and faculty expressed opposition to Ahmadinejad's policies.
While Duke has not hosted a speaker as infamous as Ahmadinejad in recent years, a conference held on campus by the Palestine Solidarity Movement stirred up a great deal of controversy in Fall 2004.
The conference was approved by President Richard Brodhead and the administration because it met all the standard conditions for such events, but it was met with fierce resistance from the Jewish community on campus.
"[Duke] has always separated having someone speak and seeing that as constituting an endorsement of what [they] say," said Bruce Kuniholm, professor of public policy studies and history and director of the Sanford Institute of Public Policy. "Sometimes it's good to be challenged out of your complacency. A university is a place where those ideas ought to be debated."
Kuniholm said the process of getting individuals to come speak on campus has multiple steps. Speakers need to be contacted and generally require a fee, which is often split between multiple groups in order to fund the event.
Duke University Union President Katelyn Donnelly, a senior, said even if student organizations are able to raise enough money to attract a well-known speaker, the ideal location for the event is often hard to find.
"For speakers, it is particularly important to find the correct venue that showcases their speaking ability," she said.
Donnelly said she is confident that Duke could host speakers on the level of Ahmadinejad.
"One of [DUU's] goals this year is to bring bigger-name speakers and alumni [to Duke]," she said,
Kuniholm said the fact that Duke is not located in a major city holds the University back from getting speakers who travel to urban areas for other reasons. Ahmadinejad was in New York City to make a speech at the United Nations, and would not have appeared at Columbia had he not been there already.
Even if a controversial speaker were to come to Duke, Kuniholm said the speech would have to create an open dialogue among students and faculty-not just express a single ideology.
"If [the speaker is] going to challenge our students, then we want our students to be able to challenge him," he said.
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