A new Columbia University acting president replaced interim president Katrina Armstrong on Friday amid the institution’s attempts to placate the US federal government over campus antisemitism and pro-terrorist radicalism and, more recently, over a row concerning whether Armstrong was Janus-faced about the administration’s commitment to enforcing anti-discrimination and protest rules.
According to a Friday university statement, its Board of Trustees co-chair, Claire Shipman, would become the Columbia acting president “effective immediately” until the board completed its search for a permanent president.Shipman said that she assumed the role with “a clear understanding of the serious challenges before us and a steadfast commitment to act with urgency and integrity.” She added that she would “work with our faculty to advance our mission, implement needed reforms, protect our students, and uphold academic freedom and open inquiry.”Columbia University’s Board of Trustees chair, David Greenwald, said in the statement that Armstrong, who would be returning to lead the university’s Irving Medical Center, accepted the role at a time of uncertainty and “worked tirelessly to promote the interests of our community.”
In a separate Friday statement, Armstrong said that her heart was always with sciences and healing, and it was in this field that she could best serve the university and its community.
“Over the last few months, I appreciate having had the opportunity to play a small part in navigating this vast enterprise through some of the most difficult moments in its history,” said Armstrong. “The world needs Columbia University, and you can be assured that I will do everything I can to tell that story.”Mask bans during protests
The transition came after a controversy surrounding a Wall Street Journal report about a meeting between Armstrong and faculty in which she downplayed commitments to the federal government toward the restoration of $400 million in government grants and contracts that were canceled on March 7.
According to that report, Armstrong had told the faculty that there was no ban on masks during unauthorized protests despite agreeing to such a ban and other conditions in a statement last Friday.Armstrong said that “any suggestion that these measures are illusory or lack my personal support, is unequivocally false” in a Saturday statement, assuring that these “changes are real, and they are right for Columbia.”She explained that statements during internal meetings attributed to the then-interim president were made without full context and that she regretted any confusion and “inconsistent statements.”Armstrong committed to implementing the mask ban and other changes with the support of Columbia’s leadership and Board of Trustees.Yet, amid the confusion in messaging, activists tested the new mask ban, with the Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition (CPSC) holding a Monday masked rally to demonstrate against the rule.“Wear a mask on Monday to protest mask bans and the fascist trustees,” CPSC said on X/Twitter last Sunday.The Columbia University Medical Center for Palestine also urged students on Instagram last Sunday to wear medical masks every day on campus to “fight repression.”The Columbia Jewish Alumni Association criticized the university on X on Tuesday for failing to address the masked protest.Last Friday, Columbia announced several actions that it said it was taking in response to the federal government’s demands that it respond to the post-October 7 civil unrest.Besides the requirement that protesting students must identify themselves before security personnel, Columbia promised to improve its disciplinary process with its Judicial Board.WHILE SOME students who participated in last April’s protest encampments were suspended, expelled, and had their degrees temporarily revoked on March 13, the university assured that disciplinary proceedings against other participants were ongoing.
The Columbia Office of Institutional Equity will also announce a sanction policy for student groups engaged in discriminatory conduct, which could result in defunding, suspension, or derecognition.Columbia clarified last Friday that protests inside facilities, such as the Hamilton Hall occupation, were not acceptable because of the likelihood of disrupting academic activities.Further, Columbia said that it had reinforced its public safety personnel with 36 officers.Last Friday, in a post on X, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which has been at the forefront of the campus protests, decried the expansion of the security team as a “de facto Columbia police force.”THE SJP chapter also slammed the opening and advancement of the Tel Aviv Global Center, an academic center that has been the protest group’s latest target. It has been demanding that the university institute an anti-Israel academic boycott.
The center’s advancement comes alongside the university’s commitment to promote a “balanced and comprehensive curriculum.”Columbia said that a senior academic administrator would review its study programs concerning the Middle East. These include the Center for Palestine Studies, the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, the Middle East Institute, and SIPA, the School of International and Public Affairs.The university also said it would “ensure intellectual diversity” and fairness in the framework of its Middle East studies with new positions in SIPA, the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, and the Economics and Political Science departments.These moves addressed all the items discussed in a March 13 letter to Columbia from the US Education Department, the General Services Administration, and the Health and Human Services Department.The letter, obtained by The Jerusalem Post, detailed the necessary compliance for the resumption of funding and grants that were canceled due to the belief that the university “fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment” and other civil rights violations.Accredited to the alleged civil rights violations, the federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism had also demanded that Columbia adopt an antisemitism definition that addressed anti-Zionist discrimination, as well as a strategy for admissions reform.Columbia stated last Friday that it would provide institution-wide Title VI training and revise its discrimination policies, including incorporating a working definition for its 2024 Task Force on Antisemitism.The definition recommended in one of the task’s reports described antisemitism as “prejudice, discrimination, hate, or violence directed at Jews, including Jewish Israelis” that included “targeting Jews or Israelis for violence or celebrating violence against them; exclusion or discrimination based on Jewish identity or ancestry or real or perceived ties to Israel; and certain double standards applied to Israel.”Columbia also committed to having external experts review their admissions practices. Further, it committed to establishing an advisory group to analyze concerns about discrimination amid a downturn trend in both Jewish and African American enrollment.The US Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, said last Monday in a joint statement with her counterparts, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), that Columbia was demonstrating cooperation with President Donald Trump’s requirements.FAS commissioner and task force member Josh Gruenbaum said that the first steps were a positive sign, but the university’s administrative members had to continue to show that they were “serious in their resolve to end antisemitism and protect all students and faculty on their campus through permanent and structural reform.”Gruenbaum warned that other universities should expect the same degree of scrutiny if they did not protect their students, with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. decrying in the same statement how Ivy League campuses had become a “greenhouse for poison.”“Instead of inspiring universal condemnation, the October 7 holocaust triggered a global wave of antisemitism,” said Kennedy. “Trump has ordered his cabinet to use every constitutional tool to uproot this divisive weed. I’m glad Columbia has agreed to this first step and will begin to restore itself as a garden of tolerance, reason, compassion, and respect.”Anti-Israel action
Columbia’s commitments have resulted in protests from anti-Israel groups and allies, with the Student Workers of Columbia (SWC) union holding a picket last Monday in response to “repressive policies” and disciplinary actions of students disciplined for anti-Israel activism, including its expelled president, Grant Miner. Further protests were held on Thursday, according to SWC.
Over 1600 academics and faculty groups from institutions across the US signed a boycott call against Columbia for its cooperation with the Trump administration as well as its disciplinary actions against activists and “failure to defend” Columbia University Apartheid Divest leader Mahmoud Khalil and former student Ranjani Srinivasan from deportation action.“Columbia’s actions endanger all students, staff, and faculty,” read the boycott letter. “These are concerted attacks on the integrity of higher education and on our ability to conduct research, teach, and learn. These attacks are fueled by anti-Palestinian racism and enabled by the dangerous weaponization of antisemitism.”Boycotters called on Columbia to reverse all the disciplinary actions and cease its cooperation with the Trump administration.