University of Havana-North (Columbia University)

Television show commentator Bill O’Reilly (host of he O’Reilly Factor on Fox News) called Columbia University “University of Havana-North” in his “Talking Points” memo of October 6, 2006. O’Reilly was commenting on the perceived left-wing craziness at Columbia.
 
The nickname “University of Havana-North” is still remembered and is sometimes used. Both universities are two of the oldest to be founded in the Americas and both have similar “Alma Mater” statues.
 
   
Wikipedia: Columbia University
Columbia University is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia’s main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City. The university is now legally known as Columbia University in the City of New York. The institution was established as King’s College by the Church of England, receiving a Royal Charter in 1754 from George II of Great Britain. One of only two universities in the United States to have been founded by royal charter, it was the first college established in the Province of New York, and the fifth college established in the Thirteen Colonies. After the American Revolution it was briefly chartered as a New York State entity from 1784-1787, however the university now operates under a 1787 charter that places the institution under a private board of trustees.
 
Columbia University is home to the Pulitzer Prize, which has rewarded outstanding achievement in journalism, literature and music for over a century. Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism was founded by Joseph Pulitzer.
 
Seventy-six Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with Columbia.
 
Columbia was the birthplace of FM radio, the first American university to offer historic preservation, anthropology and political science as academic disciplines, the first American school to grant the M.D. degree, and the birthplace of modern genetics. An early research center for Manhattan Project development of the atomic bomb, its Morningside Heights campus was the first North American site where the uranium atom was split. Literary and artistic movements as varied as the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat movement and postcolonialism all took shape at Columbia in the 20th century.
 
WikiCU: Alma Mater
Alma Mater is literally the mother soul of the college/university. In the context of Columbia, Alma Mater almost always means the Daniel Chester French sculpture that graces the steps to Low Library.
 
It was a gift of Mrs. Robert Goelet and Robert Goelet Jr. in memory of Robert Goelet, Columbia College Class of 1860, and presented in 1903.
 
Alma Mater was originally intended to be guilt in gold, but never was. The bronze eventually oxidized and the statue was instead coated and sealed.
 
Urban rumor has it that back-up Alma Maters are kept at the ready should need arise. During the 60’s and 70’s, it seemed likely. According to this fable, one alum recalls hearing an explosion while in class in 1970, and finding Alma Mater skewed off her base later that day, though not fallen. Rumor has it that this was the work of the Weathermen. There is no known evidence in support of any of these claims.
 
An owl is hidden in the folds of Alma Mater’s robes. According to legend, the first student of each College class to find the owl would graduate Valedictorian and marry a Barnard woman (back when Columbia College was still all-male.)
 
On the back of Alma Mater’s chair you’ll find the Columbia Crown and Columbia Seal lightly embossed in the metal.
 
Columbia’s Alma Mater has a sister at the University of Havana. The Cuban Alma Mater was created in 1919 by Mario Korbel and inspired by Columbia’s Alma Mater, while Korbel was residing in New York City. More recently, it served as somewhat uncanny validation for Bill O’Reilly’s claim that Columbia is the “University of Havana North”.
   
Wikipedia: University of Havana
The University of Havana or UH (in Spanish, Universidad de La Habana) is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, Cuba. Founded in 1728, the University of Havana is the oldest university in Cuba and one of the first to be founded in the Americas. Founded as a religious institution, today the University of Havana has 15 faculties (colleges) at its Havana campus and distance learning centers throughout Cuba.
 
Wikipedia: Bill O’Reilly
William James O’Reilly, Jr. (born September 10, 1949) is an American television/radio host, author, syndicated columnist, and self-proclaimed “traditionalist” political commentator. He is the host of the cable news program The O’Reilly Factor. Prior to hosting The O’Reilly Factor, he served as anchor of the entertainment program, Inside Edition.
 
O’Reilly also hosts The Radio Factor, a talk radio program syndicated by Westwood One, and is the author of seven books.
 
The O’Reilly Factor
Talking Points
The Far Left Becomes Dangerous
Friday, October 06, 2006
By Bill O’Reilly
 
Some leaders of the Minuteman Project, the border protest group, were invited to speak at Columbia University, an ultra-left institution. Well, last night, they got this welcome from Columbia students and faculty:
 
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Minuteman Project…
CROWD: (Jeers, shouting, screaming, loud noise.)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
 
Things were obviously out of control. And Columbia police stood by and did nothing.
 
OK, no spin: Columbia University is a disgrace. It is not interested in free speech or learning, it is a place of indoctrination. Let us call it the “University of Havana, North.”
 
All over the country these kind of fascist tactics are being used by fanatical secular progressives who seek to impose their views on others, and silence and/or harm people who oppose them.
 
Genevieve’s Tales
Friday, October 06, 2006
Columbia Students Protest the Minutemen
My fellow Columbia students storm the stage at Roone Arledge Auditorium for a hearty smackdown with the Minutemen Project group who claim there is an illegal alien crisis in America and want to put up fences at the US-Mexican border. They claim to be a citizen’s watch group, but at the heart of it their efforts are eeriely racist and unsettling. They carry sniper rifles and patrol the border, harassing people. WTF??! Why would the stupid College Republicans invite this group???!!!
 
Anyway, the protest got ugly. I don’t know who threw the first punches but Columbia is now on the hitlist of all these conservative commentators and stations. The shit that’s circulating: Columbia is now a haven for terrorists. Columbia should be renamed University of Havana North. Etc., etc. 
 
Columbia Spectator
Missing Person Report
By Sarah Leonard and Kate Redburn
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 30, 2008
(...)
Bill O’Reilly is, like, his biggest fan. He even gave Columbia a great little nickname—University of Havana Central. Isn’t that sweet?