Columbia Universityʼs interim president Katrina Armstrong has resigned after pressure from Trump, particularly over funding, forced the institution to revise its policies.
CNN writes about this.
Following Katrinaʼs resignation, Board of Trustees co-chair Claire Shipman was appointed president. She will serve as interim president while the board searches for a new president. The university did not give a reason for the personnel changes.
However, Katrina Armstrong resigned after the institution threatened to deport two protesting students and cut $400 million in research funding. Columbia University then agreed to give in to the Trump administration on a number of demands.
The new rules agreed to by Columbia University include tighter restrictions on protests, penalties for student organizations that violate the rules, expanded arrest powers for university police, and more authority for the president over disciplinary matters. In addition, the Middle East-related curriculum will be immediately reviewed.
This week, faculty unions sued the Trump administration over its decision to cut $400 million in funding for Columbia University that Congress had allocated for research.
- The situation at Columbia University has prompted philosophy professor Jason Stanley to leave Yale and the United States for a position at the University of Toronto. Stanley has cited the political climate in the country as his reason for leaving. He is concerned about how other universities are behaving and responding to pressure. Yale, in particular, has not publicly commented on the situation at Columbia.
- In addition to him, historians Timothy Snyder and Marcy Shore (who are a married couple) have left Yale. Shore believes that many of her colleagues are considering moving because of the current political climate, which she sees as “America’s descent into fascism”.
- Stanley and Shore recently joined 3 000 Jewish educators in signing a letter condemning the arrest of a Columbia University student who was protesting and calling on educational institutions to oppose the Trump administrationʼs higher education policies.
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