Another one bites the dust. On Friday, Columbia University’s interim president Katrina A. Armstrong became the latest Ivy League president to throw in the towel, just seven months after the departure of her predecessor, Nemat Shafik.
Shafik resigned in disgrace and left the country following her troubled 13-month tenure during which she consistently failed to lead in the face of violent anti-Semitic campus protests. Since December 2023, five other Ivy League presidents have resigned or left their posts ahead of schedule, a depressing showing for a group of just eight institutions that claim to be world leaders in higher education.
Claire Shipman, a television journalist serving as co-chair of Columbia’s board of trustees, was named acting president. She is the troubled university’s fourth chief executive in less than 20 months and the third woman to lead it. Armstrong will return to her old job as CEO of Columbia’s medical center, for which she was paid a handsome $1.3 million per year, according to Columbia’s most recently available tax filing.
A week before Armstrong resigned, Columbia released an unsigned program of institutional reforms in response to the Trump administration’s decision to pause $400 million in federal funds. Federal immigration authorities also detained for prospective deportation Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian national who completed a graduate degree at Columbia in December and has been identified as a vocal supporter of Hamas, the terrorist organization that carried out the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
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