Key points
- 60 more universities have been warned
- Columbia has been the centre of pro-Palestinian protests
- Trump administration has been criticised for repression of political speech
ISLAMABAD: Columbia University’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, stepped down on Friday amid Trump’s crackdown.
According to the New York Times, her resignation comes after the Trump administration moved this month to cancel about $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia, an extraordinary blow to the university.
More stringent protest policies
Last week, in a bid to revive that flow of funding, Columbia agreed to a set of conditions from the Trump administration, including more stringent protest policies, the buildup of a campus security force, and new oversight of the university’s Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department.
The decision was widely condemned as surrendering to the Trump administration, according to the New York Times.
According to BBC, Columbia University’s interim president resigned her role just one week after the Ivy League university agreed to change several policies to satisfy demands from the Trump administration.
Katrina Armstrong had led the university since August, after the previous president resigned over her handling of protests against Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
Arrests of about 100 students
According to BBC, last year, Columbia University’s former President Minouche Shafik resigned from her position four months after the institution was rocked by campus protests over the war in Gaza. Dr Shafik’s resignation came only a year after she took the position at the private Ivy League university in New York City and just a few weeks before the autumn semester was due to begin. Dr Shafik, at the time, was the third president of an Ivy League university to resign over her handling of Gaza war protests. In April last year, Dr Shafik had authorised New York Police Department officers to swarm the campus, a controversial decision that led to the arrests of about 100 students who were occupying a university building. The episode marked the first time that mass arrests had been made on Columbia’s campus since the Vietnam War protests more than five decades ago.
Columbia has drawn ire from Donald Trump, who claims that it and other schools have tolerated antisemitism and the harassment of Jewish students. Katrina Armstrong will return to her previous role leading Columbia’s medical centre, the university said in a statement on Friday. She will be replaced by Board of Trustees Co-Chair Claire Shipman, who the school said would serve as acting president.
Epicentre of pro-Palestinian protests
Last week, Columbia agreed to several demands from the Trump administration, including a ban on face masks at protests and a change in oversight of some academic programmes after the administration said it planned to withhold millions in federal funds.
It is unclear whether the funds will be reinstated, though a lawsuit was filed by some of the school’s faculty over the cuts.
The New York college was the epicentre of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses last year against war in Gaza and US support for Israel.
60 universities threatened
It is not only Columbia that has faced funding cuts; the Trump administration has warned 60 universities that funding may be cancelled if allegations of antisemitism on campuses are not addressed.
This all comes in the wake of a high-profile arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and campus activist.
He was detained by federal immigration authorities earlier this month.
Khalil, a legal permanent US resident, faces deportation for his role in the 2024 campus protests.
Repression of political speech
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly alleged that Khalil and other pro-Palestinian activists support Hamas, a group designated a terrorist organisation by the US.
The 30-year-old’s lawyers say he was exercising free speech rights to demonstrate in support of Palestinians in Gaza and against US support for Israel. They accused the government of “open repression of student activism and political speech”.
