Dateless

In what will certainly be characterized by the media as caving to public pressure, the Columbia International Relations Council and Association, CIRCA, will be a no show at tomorrow’s dinner with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It is not clear as of yet whether or not CIRCA was disinvited from the event, or if they chose themselves to avoid further controversy. CIRCA President Rhonda Shafei, CC’12, only confirmed that CIRCA would not be participating, and that the tickets have been given to another student organization. She would not comment on which group this might be.

The dinner has been controversial since Spectator first broke the story that plans were in the works. The following day, the New York Post and Fox News published a distorted account of the planned events, which claimed that President Bollinger and the University in some way supported the event. Many others followed suit, resulting in one attempt to bring legal action against the university.