The non permanent chief of Columbia College resigned Friday night after lower than a full college 12 months on the helm — a choice that was praised as an “important step” to revive federal funding by the Trump administration.
“It has been a singular honor to lead Columbia University in this important and challenging time,” she wrote. “This is one of the world’s great universities, in its most vital city, and I am proud to have worked with extraordinary faculty, students and alumni.”
“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.”
The Board of Trustees confirmed her resignation in an announcement. Certainly one of its co-chairs, Claire Shipman, will function performing college president, efficient instantly, till the board can full a presidential search.
“I assume this role with a clear understanding of the serious challenges before us,” Shipman wrote. She promised to work with school, shield Columbia college students and implement “needed reforms.”
On the time of her resignation, Armstrong had been knee-deep in negotiations with the Trump administration over $400 million in federal contracts and grants that had been canceled as a result of allegations of campus antisemitism. On the finish of final week, she agreed to a number of of the federal government’s calls for, together with prohibitions on masks throughout protests and oversight of Center Japanese research. Her willingness to work with the feds briefly earned her the praises of U.S. Training Secretary Linda McMahon.
However the determination could have value her the arrogance of swaths of her school, who on Tuesday sued the Trump administration over ignoring what they referred to as a legally required course of to terminate funding. College students, too, protested — in masks — all through the final week over what they are saying amounted to a capitulation to the federal authorities’s calls for.
It isn’t publicly identified the place negotiations between the federal government and Armstrong stood when she selected to step down, although an announcement by President Trump’s antisemitism activity drive instructed the connection had soured. As of Friday, the federal funding had nonetheless not been restored.
A Columbia spokeswoman wouldn’t verify if the Trump administration was concerned in selections round management modifications. In latest days, Armstrong needed to defend her dedication to the masks ban and different measures after leaks about inner conferences during which she tried to guarantee school that not a lot had modified.
“I regret any confusion and inconsistent statements and want to make sure our position is clear as we go forward,” Armstrong stated in an announcement on Tuesday.
The federal working group, which is housed inside the U.S. Justice Division, instructed it was the trustees’ determination for Armstrong to step down.
“The action taken by Columbia’s trustees today, especially in light of this week’s concerning revelation, is an important step toward advancing negotiations as set forth in the pre-conditional understanding reached last Friday between the University and the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism,” learn the duty drive’s assertion.
Armstrong, an Alabama native, joined Columbia’s medical heart in 2022. She stepped into the interim function vacated by former college President Minouche Shafik in August.
Initially Printed: March 28, 2025 at 8:51 PM EDT
