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#ColumbiaUniversity changed its president on Friday evening, one week after the university bowed to a series of demands from the #Trump admin, which had moved to withhold $400M in essential federal funding.

The abrupt exit of Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, made way for the university’s 3rd leader since Aug: Claire Shipman, the co-chair of the university’s board of trustees.

#Columbia announced Dr. Armstrong’s departure & Shipman’s appointment in an email to the campus community Fri night. The letter thanked Armstrong for her efforts during “a time of great uncertainty for the university” & said Shipman has “a clear understanding of the serious challenges facing our community.”

Shipman, a #journalist w/2 degrees from Columbia, was named acting president & assumed the top job at … an extraordinarily charged moment in American higher #education.

The govt is threatening to end the flow of billions to #universities across the country, many of which are facing inquiries from agencies that range from the #DOJ to #HHS.

But #Trump’s punitive approach…is playing out most acutely at #Columbia. The university, a hub of last spring’s campus #protest movement against the war in #Gaza, has spent months confronting accusations that it *condoned* *antisemitic* behavior, permitted *lawlessness* to dominate, & stifled #academic & #political #speech.

The #Trump admin’s move this month to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in support to #Columbia — which draws roughly a fifth of its operating revenues from Washington — represented a dire #threat to the university. The govt told Columbia it would consider restarting those grants & contracts only if the university agreed to a list of demands.

Last week, it fell to Dr. Armstrong to announce that Columbia had done so.

Among other steps, #Columbia said it would have 36 campus safety officers w/ #arrest powers, a shift w/enormous resonance at a university that has a long history of campus #activism & fraught ties w/law enforcement.Columbia also said it would adopt a formal definition of #antisemitism, review its #admissions policies &, in a turn that was especially alarming to professors who cherish #academic #freedom, impose new #oversight of the university’s #MiddleEastern, #SouthAsian & #AfricanStudies Dept.

#Columbia’s acquiescence drew significant condemnation on the campus & beyond. Other higher #education leaders watched nervously, fearing that the university’s decision, w/o mounting a court challenge that many felt stood a reasonable chance of success, would provoke the #Trump admin to target other #universities.

2 days before Columbia announced its decision, the #Trump admin said it would withhold about $175M in funding to the University of #Pennsylvania because the school allowed a #transgender woman to be a member of its women’s swim team in 2022.

@tsturm @Nonilex Agreed. Columbia buckled during the protests. Now Columbia has completely surrendered. Both while sitting on a bazillion dollar endowment.

No moral authority left.