Columbia University's interim president steps down and returns to former post [View all]

Source: AP

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University’s interim president Katrina Armstrong has resigned, returning to her post running the New York school’s medical center. Armstrong’s return to her former job as CEO of Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center comes days after Columbia agreed to a host of policy changes demanded by the Trump administration as a condition of restoring $400 million in government funding.

In a statement published on the Columbia University website Friday, Armstrong said she was proud to have led the university during an “important and challenging time.”. “But my heart is with science, and my passion is with healing. That is where I can best serve this University and our community moving forward,” she wrote.

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The move by President Donald Trump’s administration to strip the university and its hospital of research funding, on the grounds that it hadn’t done enough to combat antisemitism or punish students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year, created what many considered an existential crisis. The university quickly capitulated, agreeing to a list of administration demands.

Among the new changes, Columbia agreed to review its admissions policies, ban protesters from wearing masks, bar demonstrations from academic buildings and to put its Middle East studies department under the supervision of a new senior provost with a mandate to review its leadership and curriculum.


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