From the Times: Columbia University's president, Lee C. Bollinger, yesterday condemned a series of race-related incidents on campus, including the publication of a racially offensive cartoon in an alternative student newspaper last Friday. In a message sent to the Columbia community, he said several statements and events that demeaned blacks and other minorities "have proved unusually offensive to members of the Columbia University community, including me." Mr. Bollinger, the former president of the University of Michigan, who is widely known for his defense of affirmative action in two lawsuits that went up to the United States Supreme Court, said in an interview that he hoped to find ways to make Columbia a more comfortable place for minority students. His comments followed a meeting that he and other Columbia administrators had with black student leaders on Friday. "I was saddened by the pain and frustration that they expressed about various encounters on the campus and the number of incidents that made them feel unwelcome," he said. "That, together with the publication of another offensive statement over the weekend, made me feel I really needed to say something to the community." Several hundred students protested the incidents, gathering on the steps of Low Library on Monday and yesterday; they said they would demonstrate through the week.