Having been born in the shadow of the Second World War, having been educated, including at Columbia, in an era when totalitarianism and its evils were a principal subject of analysis and rejection, and having chosen a field in which intolerance is a defining characteristic always to be combatted, I cannot help but feel the intimations of the horrific human tragedy in the naked aggression we are witness to today against the country of Ukraine and its people. My thoughts are with them and with all who will suffer from these assaults.
—Lee C. Bollinger