“I am acutely aware of the trials the university has faced over the past year,” wrote the new leader, who holds multiple positions at the Ivy League school.
By JNS
Following the resignation of Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, the elite college announced internist Katrina Armstrong to serve as interim president.
“Katrina is well-known to the Columbia community,” wrote David Greenwald and Claire Shipman, co-chairs of the Trustees of Columbia University. “She has transformed the health sciences at Columbia.”
Armstrong serves in three other positions at Columbia: She is CEO of the school’s Irving Medical Center, serves as executive vice president for Columbia’s Health and Biomedical Sciences, and is the Harold and Margaret Hatch Professor.
Greenwald and Shipman wrote that Armstrong “has distinguished herself as a physician, investigator, teacher and leader with a unique ability to listen actively to all voices, incorporate lessons from across disciplines, advance innovative teaching that positions learners of all backgrounds for success, and bring together teams from across communities to work together toward a common purpose.”
Armstrong’s recent research examined health disparities in rural areas, an effort that included partnerships with Lakota tribal communities and groups in South Dakota. She has also focused on exploring the challenges to mental health in the United States.
In her first presidential statement to the university, Armstrong acknowledged the recent challenges the school had seen and her faith they could be overcome.
“I am acutely aware of the trials the university has faced over the past year. We should neither understate their significance, nor allow them to define who we are and what we will become,” she wrote. “Never has it been more important to train leaders capable of elevating society and addressing the complexity of modern life. Columbia University has a long history of meeting the moment, and I have faith that we will do so once again.”
Under Shafik’s leadership, Columbia’s campus became a place that Jewish faculty and students have said is rife with Jew-hatred and unsafe for Jews. In June, the Ivy League school in Manhattan settled a lawsuit with a Jewish student.
The House Education and the Workforce Committee has said that Columbia is refusing to turn over documents and is threatening to subpoena the school, and three Columbia deans recently resigned after exchanging text messages—which the university said “touched on ancient antisemitic tropes”—during an event about Jew-hatred on campus.
“During Shafik’s presidency, a disturbing wave of antisemitic harassment, discrimination and disorder engulfed Columbia University’s campus,” stated Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the House education committee. “Jewish students and faculty have been mocked, harassed and assaulted simply for their identity. Every student has the right to a safe learning environment. Period. Yet, flagrant violations of the law and the university rules went unpunished.”