Who

"PrezBo" is the president of Columbia University and a member of its law school faculty. He's known for his work on free speech and First Amendment issues.

Backstory

Born in California and raised in Oregon, Bollinger moved to New York to attend Columbia Law, and clerked for Chief Justice Warren Burger during the '70s. He joined the faculty at the University of Michigan Law School in 1973, and was named dean of the school in 1987, the same year he made national news testifying against Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, who had asserted that novels aren't protected by the First Amendment. Although Bollinger briefly left Michigan for Dartmouth in 1994, he returned as president of Michigan two years later. During his stint at U of M, Bollinger developed a rep for being approachable (he once invited revelers to celebrate at his house after a football team win) and for his formidable fundraising skills: He raised more than $200 million in annual gifts during his tenure. In 2001, Bollinger was on the short list to become president of Harvard University. He didn't get the job—Larry Summers was picked instead—but he landed at Columbia the following year, replacing George Rupp.

Of note

Bollinger has been working full steam to boost Columbia's $6 billion endowment, launching a $4 billion capital campaign in 2007 and landing a well-publicized $400 million donation from John Kluge in 2007. He's also been on a major recruitment drive, amplifying the faculty roster in the economics, engineering and science departments in particular, and reeling in celebrity academics like Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Oliver Sacks. Real estate has also been at the top of his to-do list: Bollinger has been at the fore of Columbia's efforts to double its size with a suite of new buildings in Morningside Heights and West Harlem, a highly contentious plan that finally gained city approval in 2007 over the objections of local residents. On top of his duties as university president, Bollinger still finds time to teach. Undergrads can enroll in his "Freedom of Speech and Press" class.

Drama

Ironically, it's been his handling of free speech issues that has drawn the most criticism in recent years. In 2006, he was chastised for disciplining student protesters who disrupted a speech by the founder of the anti-immigrant Minuteman Project. In 2007, in the most dramatic episode of his tenure, he ignited a firestorm by inviting Holocaust-denying, terrorism-funding Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia. Bollinger led off the event with a spectacular condemnation, calling Ahmadinejad "astonishingly uneducated" and "a petty and cruel dictator." Reaction to Bollinger's speech was split—some thought it was a courageous stand against an evil despot, others thought it was an embarrassingly inappropriate way to treat a world leader whom Bollinger had invited to speak in the first place. Elsewhere, Bollinger also found himself in the middle of controversy when he named Olatunde "Olati" Johnson to the Columbia Law School faculty in 2006; Johnson had been embroiled in a scandal with Bollinger back when he was at the University of Michigan.

In print

Bollinger has authored more first-amendment books than anyone this side of Floyd Abrams. His oeuvre includes Eternally Vigilant: Free Speech in the Modern Era and Images of a Free Press.

Keeping score

PrezBo took home $757,923 in 2005.

The look

Bollinger's bulky physique is more linebacker than university president. He's a jogger, though, and once ran the Boston Marathon in 2 hours and 52 minutes.

Personal

He and his wife, Jean Magnano Bollinger, an artist, have two children, Lee and Carey. After living in temporary housing for years while Columbia president's house underwent $23 million in renovations, in 2004 the Bollingers moved into the McKim, Mead & White-designed home on 116th Street. They have a Labrador, Sierra, named after the mountain range where Bollinger and his wife and kids often go hiking.