Columbia College’s Interim President Resigns After Deal With Trump

Columbia College’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, resigned on Friday, only a week after the varsity accepted a controversial set of calls for from the Trump administration so as to restore federal funding.

“I recognize having had the chance to play a small half in navigating this huge enterprise by way of among the most tough moments in its historical past,” Armstrong wrote in a public assertion saying her departure from the function. “However my coronary heart is with science, and my ardour is with therapeutic. That’s the place I can finest serve this College and our neighborhood transferring ahead.”

Armstrong will return to her earlier function as head of the college’s medical heart. Claire Shipman, cochair of the college’s board of trustees, has been appointed as appearing president.

The Trump administration just lately moved to slash $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia, an enormous monetary hit for the establishment. In an try to revive funding, Columbia agreed to a sequence of situations set by the administration, together with stricter protest insurance policies, a bolstered campus safety power, and enhanced oversight of its Center Japanese, South Asian, and African Research Division.

Columbia school, by way of the College Members’ Union in Manhattan, has filed a lawsuit for $400 million in federal funds to be restored and accused a number of federal businesses of ignoring legally required processes to terminate funding.

The Trump administration has additionally sought to deport pro-Palestine Columbia college students who’re everlasting residents or Inexperienced Card holders. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia College graduate who organized pro-Palestine activists on campus, is being held in detention as he waits to seem earlier than an immigration decide on April 8, regardless of being a everlasting resident.

Columbia’s take care of Trump has sparked widespread backlash, with critics condemning it as a capitulation to political stress.

Armstrong, who took over as interim president in August, had stepped in after Minouche Shafik resigned amid heavy criticism over her dealing with of campus protests.

Shipman now faces the problem of navigating Columbia’s future because it grapples with the implications of its settlement with the Trump administration and ongoing tensions inside its educational neighborhood.

The White Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.