Columbia University has appointed Claire Shipman, a co-chair of its board of trustees, as acting president of the institution targeted by the Trump administration with major federal funding cuts.
Why it matters: President Trump’s administration pulled some $400 million in federal grants and contracts from the school over allegations of antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests on the campus.
- Columbia reached an agreement last month to assuage some of the White House’s demands in negotiations over federal funding.
- It expelled some students involved in a building takeover, and in other cases issued multi-year suspensions or temporarily revoked degrees.
Driving the news: Shipman, an award-winning journalist and longtime White House correspondent, will continue as acting president of the university “until the Board completes its presidential search,” the university said in a statement Friday. Her appointment was effective immediately.
- Katrina Armstrong, who was serving as interim president, is returning to lead the university’s Irving Medical Center.
Catch up quick: Columbia president Minouche Shafik, Harvard president Claudine Gay and Penn State president Liz Magill earlier resigned after facing criticism for their responses during congressional hearings on campus antisemitism.
- Their testimony, amid rising reports of antisemitism and Islamophobia linked to the Israel-Hamas war, drew backlash for failing to condemn calls for violence against Jews.
What she’s saying: “Columbia changed my life,” Shipman also said.
- “That is what universities are meant to do — to teach students how to think, not what to think; to challenge and broaden and definitely not to intimidate and terrorize.”
More from Axios:
