This is an interesting anecdote picking on one professor, but I can say as a current student, Columbia does an outstanding job of admitting students from a dive

This is an interesting anecdote picking on one professor, but I can say as a current student, Columbia does an outstanding job of admitting students from a diverse background through the School of General Studies. I'm a student here now, and I've made friends with several of the ex-military folks who make up most of the population of the School of General Studies. Just earlier tonight, I was chatting with a 35 year old former marine from Mississippi who just completed his undergrad at Columbia and is running the Columbia Republican Club (CUCR). Columbia has always given them the opportunity to have speakers (Charles Murray, Mike Cernovich, Dinesh D'Souza spoke last year, Scaramucci and Jordan Peterson are on deck this semester). Security is always made available to them, and protestors, while permitted, are not allowed to prevent the guest from speaking (unlike Middlebury or Berkley). The events that I've attended are civil and the audience generally acts according to what you would expect from an academic institution.