Lee Bollinger
Lee C. Bollinger is an
American lawyer, educator and is currently serving as the 19th president of
Columbia University. He is a noted legal scholar of the
First Amendment and
freedom of speech.
Born in
Santa Rosa, California, Bollinger was raised there and in
Baker, Oregon. He went on to graduate from the
University of Oregon in 1968 and received a
J.D. from
Columbia Law School. He served as a law clerk to Judge
Wilfred Feinberg of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Chief Justice
Warren Burger of the U.S. Supreme Court. Bollinger went on to join the faculty of the
University of Michigan Law School in 1973, becoming dean of the school in 1987. He became provost of
Dartmouth College in 1994 before returning to the University of Michigan in 1996 as president. Bollinger assumed his current position as president of Columbia University in June 2002.
In addition to his academic and administrative positions, Bollinger has authored many articles and books on the subject of free speech, including
The Tolerant Society and
Images of a Free Press.
In 2003, Bollinger made headlines as defendant in the Supreme Court cases
Grutter v. Bollinger and
Gratz v. Bollinger. In the Grutter case, the Court found by a 5-4 margin that the
affirmative action policies of the University of Michigan Law School were constitutional. But at the same time, they found by a 6-3 margin in the Gratz case that the undergraduate admissions policies of Michigan were not narrowly tailored to a compelling interest in
diversity, and thus that they violated the
Equal Protection Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment.
He is married to artist Jean Magnano Bollinger. They have two children.
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Columbia University President's Office*
UOregon article about Bollinger
