Columbian Dean Quits After Being Overruled

While Iranian President Mahmoud AhmedI'manutjob was in New York for his UN speech, he received an invitation from the dean of International and Public Affairs to speak at Columbia University. The dean was quickly overruled by the university president, and now the dean has announced her resignation:

The big question at Columbia University this week is whether the tensions between President Lee Bollinger and the dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, Lisa Anderson, led Ms. Anderson to step down.

The press office at the university confirmed yesterday that the dean, who has come under criticism for siding with anti-Israel factions on campus and for taking a junket to Saudi Arabia paid for by the regime in Riyadh, is leaving the post she has held for 10 years. Professors at SIPA said Ms. Anderson circulated an e-mail message at the end of the summer announcing her resignation, effective at the end of the academic year. It cited her desire to get back to teaching and research.

However, speculation is spreading on campus as to whether Ms. Anderson is stepping down because of tensions with Mr. Bollinger in the wake of his abrupt decision to overrule Ms. Anderson's plan to welcome the Iranian president to the World Leaders Forum on campus. Ms. Anderson's offer of hospitality to a leader who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map and who has denied the Holocaust drew criticism on campus from professors and students alike.

I don't know if the dean is mad at being overruled, or has been exposed for her way left views, but either way, the university will be a little more sane place without her leadershipo.