Mr Bollinger, who will turn 76 this month, has led Colombia to a 17-acre extension north of 125th Street in Haarlem, an area known as Manhattanville. It is now the site of towering new glass buildings housing science, arts and business centers.
In a statement announcing Mr Bollinger’s forthcoming departure, Colombia said it had worked with communities around the new campus “to support priorities such as housing and education and to build alliances that build vital ties with our neighbors and mark a new era of cooperation and progress.” ”
However, these sentiments hide a more controversial reality. Initially, the expansion threatened to become a new chapter in Colombia’s long history of friction with the surrounding Harlem neighborhood in a conflict between the city and the dress between the privileged world of academia and the often forgotten world of the poorer neighborhood.
Colombia spokeswoman Victoria Benitez said the university has tried to address community concerns by helping businesses relocate or preserve them by increasing resources for local youth and building affordable housing for residents in the affected area.
Keith Wright, a 44-year-old Haarlem MP, has been closely involved in talks with Colombia on enlargement, which Haarlem residents feared would displace them and local businesses. Mr Wright, now a consultant, recalled that the negotiators had spent almost 24 hours locked in a room before coming up with an agreement on the project.
The goal of community leaders, Mr Wright said Thursday, was “to build a pipeline so that Columbia University can be accessed by people down in the valley.”
“I think we’ve got a lot of returns from the community,” he added.
Mr Bollinger also drew attention in 2007 by inviting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak in Colombia and then attacking Mr Ahmadinejad’s record while he was sitting nearby. At least one professor in Colombia has accused Mr Bollinger, a First Amendment scholar, of inappropriate political activity.
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