Interim Columbia president apologizes to these NYPD “harm”

Columbia College’s interim president, Dr. Katrina Armstrong, in an interview with The Columbia Spectator printed Thursday, apologized to these “harm” by the New York Metropolis Police Division’s clearings of pro-Palestinian demonstrators from the campus throughout the spring.

The scholar newspaper wrote that it requested Armstrong whether or not she agreed with former president Minouche Shafik’s controversial resolution to name within the NYPD to take away a lately fashioned protest encampment—resulting in greater than 100 scholar arrests—and, later, to name within the police once more to clear occupiers from Hamilton Corridor.

“I do know that that is difficult for me to say, however I do perceive that I sit on this job, proper. And so in the event you might simply let everyone know who was harm by that, that I’m simply extremely sorry,” Armstrong responded. “And I comprehend it wasn’t me, however I’m actually sorry … I noticed it, and I’m actually sorry.”

Armstrong, who turned interim president when Shafik abruptly resigned in mid-August, additionally stated, “I see the hurt that occurred” and “I’m deeply dedicated that I work with all of you, I work with all the neighborhood to each tackle that hurt and to grasp.”

The NYPD didn’t reply to a request for remark Thursday from Inside Greater Ed.

“Dr. Armstrong gave a wide-ranging interview with the coed newspaper that partially targeted on the impression of the previous yr, and simply as she has as executed whereas chatting with many teams throughout our campus, she acknowledged their ache and reiterated how sorry she is to all college students who’re hurting,” a Columbia spokesperson stated in a press release to Inside Greater Ed.

Some weren’t pleased with Armstrong’s apology. Shai Davidai, a Columbia Enterprise College assistant professor and a vocal critic of pro-Palestinian campus protesters, posted on X Thursday that he was “deeply disenchanted.”

“Did she apologize to the Jewish and Israeli college students who had been terrorized for months on campus?” Davidai wrote. “No. She apologized to the scholars who *broke the foundations and confronted penalties*.”

Steven McGuire, the Paul and Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom on the conservative American Council of Trustees and Alumni, posted on X that “the weak spot is simply unimaginable.”

“The protestors broke the legislation,” he wrote. “They occupied a constructing. Antisemitism ran wild. The principle commencement needed to be canceled. The campus continues to be in partial lockdown. There has already been extra vandalism this semester. And he or she’s apologizing? She ought to be promising to do it once more if crucial.”