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 in the course of the spring.
The coed 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 just lately shaped 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 may simply let all people 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 the entire group to each deal with that hurt and to know.”
The NYPD didn’t reply to a request for remark Thursday from Inside Increased Ed.
“Dr. Armstrong gave a wide-ranging interview with the scholar newspaper that partially centered on the influence of the previous yr, and simply as she has as carried out 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 an announcement to Inside Increased 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 dissatisfied.”
“Did she apologize to the Jewish and Israeli college students who have 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 point is simply unbelievable.”
“The protestors broke the legislation,” he wrote. “They occupied a constructing. Antisemitism ran wild. The primary commencement needed to be canceled. The campus continues to be in partial lockdown. There has already been extra vandalism this semester. And she or he’s apologizing? She ought to be promising to do it once more if mandatory.”