Columbia U. Nixes Minuteman Speech

Columbia University students have abandoned plans for a speech by Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist, one year after their classmates violently interrupted an address by the illegal immigration foe.

The Columbia Political Union voted late Monday night to cancel Gilchrist’s Oct. 4 appearance, the New York Post reports.

The student group said in a statement that "it has become clear this event cannot take the form we had originally hoped it would and could not effectively accomplish the goals we had hoped it might."

Last year critics questioned Columbia’s commitment to free speech after Gilchrist was physically and verbally attacked by student protesters.

In response to the cancellation, Gilchrist on Tuesday that his speech “would have been a great revelation for the student body and it would have redeemed the Columbia University student body's reputation of being comprised of a Paleolithic - a caveman - mentality."

In January, Gilchrist said welfare benefit programs used strictly by the illegal immigration population were costing the U.S. $400 billion a year – “four times the annual cost of the war in Iraq.”