Columbia University’s interim president Katrina Armstrong will step down from her current role and return to lead the university’s medical center, the school’s board of trustees announced Friday.

“Dr. Armstrong accepted the role of interim president at a time of great uncertainty for the University and worked tirelessly to promote the interests of our community,” David J. Greenwald, chair of the Columbia Board of Trustees, wrote in a statement. “Katrina has always given her heart and soul to Columbia. We appreciate her service and look forward to her continued contributions to the University.”

Armstrong’s exit comes at a tumultuous time for the university.

Last week, Columbia agreed to implement a series of sweeping changes to win back potential access to $400 million in federal funding the Trump administration is threatening to withhold over allegations the school hasn’t done enough to combat antisemitism amid pro-Gaza protests.

The changes include building up a new campus police force, partially banning face masks, and removing faculty control over the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies.

Academics within and outside the university widely condemned the move as an unprecedented capitulation to outside influence.

In addition to the funding threat, Columbia has also been at the center of the administration’s crackdown on non-citizen student activists who took part in the 2023 and 2024 campus pro-Palestine protests amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The first widely reported immigration arrest of the campaign was that of green card-holder Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia grad and student activist who was initially detained at a university-owned apartment building earlier this month. He is challenging his detention in court, alleging he is being punished for exercising his constitutionally protected free speech rights.

Board of Trustees co-chair Claire Shipman, a journalist and Columbia alum, has been appointed acting president as the school continues a leadership search.

Armstrong is the second person to leave the top job at Columbia in the span of 12 months.

Minouche Shafik, an economist and former World Bank official, resigned in 2024, following a tenure that included large-scale campus protests featuring an encampment and students occupying a university building, as well as accusations of tolerating antisemitism.

Shafik came in for criticism from some students for allowing multiple large-scale police operations against protesters on campus, the first since Vietnam War protests.

Read More