Columbia president Katrina Armstrong steps down, marking second shake-up since 2024 | EUROtoday

Columbia University’s interim president Katrina Armstrong will step down from her present position and return to guide the college’s medical middle, the varsity’s board of trustees introduced Friday.

“Dr. Armstrong accepted the role of interim president at a time of great uncertainty for the University and worked tirelessly to promote the interests of our community,” David J. Greenwald, chair of the Columbia Board of Trustees, wrote in a press release. “Katrina has always given her heart and soul to Columbia. We appreciate her service and look forward to her continued contributions to the University.”

Armstrong’s exit comes at a tumultuous time for the college.

Last week, Columbia agreed to implement a sequence of sweeping modifications to win again potential entry to $400 million in federal funding the Trump administration is threatening to withhold over allegations the varsity hasn’t performed sufficient to fight antisemitism amid pro-Gaza protests.

The modifications embrace increase a brand new campus police power, partially banning face masks, and eradicating school management over the division of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies.

Academics inside and out of doors the college broadly condemned the transfer as an unprecedented capitulation to exterior affect.

In addition to the funding risk, Columbia has additionally been on the middle of the administration’s crackdown on non-citizen scholar activists who took half within the 2023 and 2024 campus pro-Palestine protests amid the Israel-Hamas warfare.

The first broadly reported immigration arrest of the marketing campaign was that of inexperienced card-holder Mahmoud Khalil, a latest Columbia grad and scholar activist who was initially detained at a university-owned house constructing earlier this month. He is difficult his detention in court docket, alleging he’s being punished for exercising his constitutionally protected free speech rights.

Board of Trustees co-chair Claire Shipman, a journalist and Columbia alum, has been appointed appearing president as the varsity continues a management search.

Armstrong is the second individual to depart the highest job at Columbia within the span of 12 months.

Minouche Shafik, an economist and former World Bank official, resigned in 2024, following a tenure that included large-scale campus protests that includes an encampment and college students occupying a college constructing, in addition to accusations of tolerating antisemitism.

Shafik got here in for criticism from some college students for permitting a number of large-scale police operations towards protesters on campus, the primary since Vietnam War protests.