Columbia University students are circulating a petition demanding that university president Lee Bollinger apologize to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for making "inflammatory remarks" when he introduced him last week. The petition claims that Bollinger "disgraced the spirit of academic exchange and diplomacy that this institution promotes."

Bollinger resisted widespread protests of his invitation to the Iranian president to address the university but introduced him as a "petty and cruel dictator." The students said that Bollinger should not have injected his personal views. The university president originally defended his invitation in the name of freedom of speech.