In a private Zoom call over the weekend, interim Columbia president Katrina Armstrong told approximately 75 faculty members that, contrary to her public statements, the school has no plans to meet some key demands made by the Trump administration for Columbia to win back $400 million worth of federal funding.
According to a transcript of the call obtained by The Free Press, Armstrong promised that there would be “no change to masking,” and “no change to our admissions procedures,” both of which the administration has demanded. What’s more, she said the school would not put its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) department under “academic receivership” for a minimum of five years—another Trump demand. She also told faculty members that “discipline remains independent” and “has not been moved to my office,” as the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force had insisted.
This is in direct contradiction to Columbia’s public promises to the White House.