The interim president of Columbia University resigned on Friday, marking the second leadership departure after the crackdown on Donald Trump’s administration’s pro-Palestinian student activity prompted him to agree to a change in sweeping policies at Ivy League schools.
Katrina Armstrong resigned soon, and journalist Claire Shipman was appointed as the new interim president of the school.
Armstrong took over the role from Minush Shafik, the former dean of the university who resigned in August.
Armstrong’s resignation comes a week after the agency granted a string of requests from the Trump administration. This has launched consultations to regain access to frozen research funds that had been withheld over anti-Semitism allegations on campus.
Trump’s joint task force to combat anti-Semitism welcomed Armstrong’s resignation, calling it “an important step in moving forward with negotiations set forth in the pre-conditional understanding that reached last Friday.”
The Trump administration repeatedly accused university leadership of not doing enough to deal with “anti-Semitism” during a massive protest of students’ campus against the Israeli military’s war of massacres against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Trump administration has warned at least 60 other academic institutions that ongoing penalties for probes could be punished for “anti-Semitism on university campuses.”
Columbia University is currently facing multiple federal investigations, and is the main focus for Propalestine student activists who targeted Trump’s immigration crackdown.
One such individual, former Columbia graduate student and green cardholder Mahmoud Khalil, is currently in custody by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In recent weeks, the State Department has moved to deport several Colombian students on visas over alleged “Prohama” sentiment. The university also confirmed that Department of Homeland Security agents exist on campus.
Armstrong, the fourth Ivy League president to step down amid Republican pressure on Republican pressure on Republican student activities, follows in the footsteps of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania presidents.
Armstrong will return to his previous work at Columbia’s major Irving Medical Center in New York City.
(Source: Press TV)