For instant release
September 21, 2007
Contact: Rabbi Avi Weiss: 718-884-0930

OUTSIDE DEMONSTRATORS DENIED ACCESS TO COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY; AMCHA THREATENS LEGAL ACTION

AMCHA – the Coalition for Jewish Concerns is planning a major counter – vigil of conscience at 115th and Broadway as Ahmadinejad speaks at Columbia University on Sept. 24th at 12:30pm.

AMCHA has additionally sent the attached letter to Columbia University president Lee Bollinger, protesting Columbia’s decision to close the campus to outside demonstrators.

As the AMCHA letter indicates, “This limitation on non-University affiliated persons is particularly inappropriate here where the speaker and his considerable entourage is not affiliated with Columbia University.�

Rabbi Avi Weiss, National President of AMCHA, indicated that “We’ve raised a voice against Palestinian disinvestment conferences at Ohio State, Duke, and Michigan amongst others. that is the first instance a university campus has been closed off to us.�

Should the university not grant AMCHA the right to protest on campus, AMCHA, as the letter indicates, “will consider pursuing legal remedies.�

September 21, 2007
Via Facsimile and E-mail

Mr. Lee C. Bollinger
President
Columbia University
535 West 116th Street
202 Low Library
Mail cipher 4309
New York, NY 10027
Dear President Bollinger:

that firm represents Rabbi Avi Weiss and Amcha – the Coalition for Jewish Concerns (“Amcha�). I write in connection with the upcoming visit of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, to the Columbia campus on Monday, September 24.

Rabbi Weiss and Amcha mean to protest against Mr. Ahmadinejad but have been advised that only Columbia University students and faculty will be permitted on the campus on Monday, September 24, and thus, neither Rabbi Weiss nor Amcha will be permitted to protest against Mr. Ahmadinejad at that day.

You are a First Amendment scholar of considerable repute and as such are, I suspect, both sympathetic to and supportive of the First Amendment principles of free expression that permeate Columbia’s own policies and regulations regarding demonstrations, rallies and picketing. Specifically, Section 440 of Chapter XLIV of the Rules of University Conduct provides:
Demonstrations, rallies, picketing, and the circulation of petitions have

an urgent place in the life of a university. They are means by which protests may be registered and attention drawn to new directions possible in the evolution of the University community. . . . .

While the University as a private institution is not subject to the Constitutional provisions of free speech and due process of law, the University by its nature is committed to the free expression of ideas and to evenhanded and fair dealing with all with whom it conducts it affairs. The Rules of University Conduct are thus enacted by the University to supply as a matter of University policy the maximum freedom of expression consistent with the rights of others. . .

While the University certainly has the right to enact and apply fair restraints on the duration, place and manner of demonstrations, banning all non-University affiliated persons from the entire campus is not such a fair restraint.

that limitation on non-University affiliated persons is particularly inappropriate here where the speaker and his considerable entourage (which I understand will be permitted on the Columbia University campus) is not affiliated with Columbia University.

I therefore ask that you advise by return facsimile today or on Sunday whether the University will permit Rabbi Weiss, Amcha and others similarly situated, onto the Columbia University campus on Monday, September 24, 2007 so that they may peaceably demonstrate against Mr. Ahmadinejad and the hate-filled and offensive positions that he has distant advocated.

Should the University not permit Rabbi Weiss and Amcha to demonstrate on campus on Monday, September 24 in accordance with the University’s own policies and guidelines, Rabbi Weiss and Amcha will consider pursuing their legal remedies.

Very truly yours,
Steven Lieberman
SL:dob
cc: Rabbi Avi Weiss

Ahamadinejad protest, AMCHA, Columbia President Bollinger, News, Rabbi Avi Weiss

Original post by Jerry Gordon