REASON: University President Ignores Facts and His Own Life While Praising the Autonomy of Universities. “The prospect of newspapers becoming indebted to government, the very institution in greatest need of journalistic oversight, is troublesome, to say the least. . . . Bollinger, for his part, is no stranger to government abuse in higher education. As Columbia University’s president, Bollinger conspired with New York’s pseudo-public Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) to use eminent domain to confiscate private property in a West Harlem neighborhood.”