Today Brandeis decided to cancel its plans to award an honorary degree to activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Nowhere is the disconnect with reality implicit in the term "ivory tower" more evident than at Brandeis.
The Brandeis administration erred because, among other things, it made two decisions which weren't in the interest of their own university: 1. Inviting her, 2. Having invited her, deciding to uninvited her. Either way, they unleashed protests. Lose/lose.
Who said you have to be intelligent to be an intellectual?
By the way, here is a fascination blog written on the subject by a Muslim written for other Muslims:
http://twentythreeandcoutingdown.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/we-hate-ayaan-hirsi-ali-because-shes-right/