WASHINGTON: Columbia University’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, has stepped down — a departure that comes one week after it agreed to significant changes amid a heated battle with the Trump administration over its federal funding.

The government this month cancelled $400 million in funding for Columbia and threatened to withhold billions more, accusing the university of not doing enough to combat antisemitism and ensure student safety amid last year’s Gaza encampment campus protests.

Columbia made dramatic concessions last week so that it can negotiate to regain the funding, drawing harsh criticism that it had quickly caved to government pressure and not stood firm on academic freedom and free speech. Board of Trustees Co-Chair Claire Shipman was appointed acting president with immediate effect, while the board searches for a new president. The university did not give a reason for the change.

“I assume this role with a clear understanding of the serious challenges before us and a steadfast commitment to act with urgency, integrity, and work with our faculty to advance our mission, implement needed reforms, protect our students, and uphold academic freedom and open inquiry,” Shipman said in a statement.

US vaccine chief resigns citing Kennedy ‘lies’

Groups representing Columbia University professors sued Trump’s administration over its effort to force the university to tighten rules on campus protests and put a Middle Eastern studies department under outside oversight, among other measures.

Columbia was at the centre of demonstrations in the summer of 2024 that spread around the United States. Protesters demanded an end to Israel’s military assault on Gaza and urged their colleges to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

The government has cracked down on foreign pro-Palestinian protesters and Columbia University Palestinian graduate Mahmoud Khalil was detai­ned earlier this month by federal immigration officials. Armst­rong is returning to lead the university’s Irving Medical Centre, Columbia University said.

‘Misinformation and lies’

The top US vaccine official resigned on Friday, citing the “misinformation and lies” he said were being peddled by the incoming health secretary, reports said. According to both theNew York Times and theWall Street Journal, Dr. Peter Marks was forced out of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine division, as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes charge.

Kennedy is a noted vaccine sceptic, while Marks has worked at the FDA since 2012 and was part of the US effort to roll out inoculations during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a resignation letter cited by the newspapers, Marks complained of an “unprecedented assault on scientific truth” being pushed by Kennedy and his supporters.

“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” he said. During President Donald Trump’s first term, the US leader was proud of his administration’s “Project Warp Speed” development of vaccines to control spread of coronavirus.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2025