President Nicolas Sarkozy’s keynote address in Low Library on March 29 marked a historic moment for Columbia University. This was the first speech given by a French president at Columbia since the French Fifth Republic was founded in 1958. The last time a French president visited Columbia was in 1951, when the role was still largely a ceremonial one. Time magazine captured the moment: “When France’s President Vincent Auriol arrived at Penn Station last week, the Big City picked him up with a whoosh; he was dusted off by blasts from the police band, photographed, delivered to the Waldorf-Astoria behind exactly 32 motorcycle cops, and then formally welcomed to the city at a three-hour banquet for 1,500 ... Then he ... whirled up to Columbia University, accepted an LL.D. degree, made a speech, whirled back, and went to another banquet . . . .[By the next day] New York, a city which gulps up princes and presidents like gumdrops and remembers almost nobody, was rumbling away as if nothing had happened at all.”
Given today’s media cycle, our memories are now even shorter. But President Sarkozy’s visit on Monday should not be gulped up and forgotten like a gumdrop, because the topics he addressed are substantive and urgent.
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