Columbia University’s president, Lee Bollinger, and the president of New York University, John Sexton, recently had an “armchair discussion” titled “Academic Integrity, the Middle East & the State of the Academy” at a synagogue in New York City. They largely skirted the contentious topic of Middle East affairs but instead (according to The New York Sun) chatted “casually, collegially and generally” about various university matters. Sexton did use the occasion to decry interference and what he called “external inquisition” from campus “watchgroups.” In other words, instead of openly engaging campus critics, he objected to the act of criticism itself. Meanwhile, upon learning of the scheduled lecture by the treacherous Ward Churchill at the New School, its president, Robert Kerrey, commented, “I have a fundamental disagreement with this individual.” He also said he hoped his decision to permit the professor to speak would stand as an example of tolerance to students who might oppose the presence of conservative speakers on the campus. Earlier, when asked to write a letter supporting Churchill’s academic freedom (after the University of Colorado sought to dismiss him for his heinous political comments), Kerrey declined, responding that the professor’s invoking of academic freedom was “a perversion of the ideal of freedom.” University presidents these days rarely speak out boldly on crucial world and university matters. Bollinger and Sexton’s pallid chat in New York is typical of presidential public discourse. Kerrey deserves praise for taking a stand on a controversial issue with important political implications.