The interim president of the Columbia University (New York), Katrina Armstrong, resigned this Friday, at a tense moment for the educational center after the president’s threats, Donald Trumpto suspend 400 million dollars in federal financing.
In a statement published on the Columbia website, one of the prestigious ‘Ivy League’ of USAthe Board of Directors of the institution announced that Armstrong leaves his position to re -direct the Irving Medical Center of the University.
“(Armstrong) accepted the position of interim president at a time of great uncertainty for the university and worked tirelessly to promote the interests of our community”the Council said in the statement.
The University has recently yielded to the requirements of Donald Trump to recover its federal financing of 400 million dollars, which was withdrawn at the beginning of the month for alleged anti -Semitism.
Read more: Trump withdraws 400 million federal funds to University of Columbia for anti -Semitism
Among the concessions of the center are the hiring of 36 special security agents that will have the ability to expel students or even stop them and the prohibition of carrying surgical masks on the campus.
The now interim president assumed the position after the resignation of Shafik Minouchewhich resigned from his position months after the proportions that took place on the campus and that resulted in the detention and expulsion of several students.
Read more: Trump says that the arrest of a proportile student leader “is the first of many”
The co -president of the Board of Directors of the Educational Center, Claire Shipmanshe will be the new interim president of Columbia from now on.
Armstrong’s resignation takes place at a time of tension for the proporting students of the University after the detention by the immigration authorities of Mahmoud Khalila young man of Palestinian origin who led the aforementioned manifestations.
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The case of Khalil, which remains detained in an immigration center in Louisiana and of which the government of Donald Trump He assures that he has links with Hamas -something that has not yet demonstrated -has resulted in various protests in the Big Apple and has opened the debate on the freedom of expression of the students.
Read more: Arrests, deportations and fund cuts: Trump’s repressive turn against universities in the US.
Shortly after Khalil’s arrest, immigration agents arrested another Palestinian student of Columbia who also participated in the demonstrations of 2024 and revoked the visa of an Indian student for alleged “Apology of violence and terrorism”.
The new acting president, who is also a journalist and writer and has a degree in international affairs at the same university, said she was committed to applying “The necessary reforms, protect our students and defend academic freedom”.
