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The interim president of Columbia College kicked off the brand new college 12 months by apologizing to anti-Israel protesters on campus who had been “damage” by the NYPD once they labored to clear the agitators who descended on the campus final 12 months.
“I do know that that is tough for me to say, however I do perceive that I sit on this job, proper. And so if you happen to may simply let all people know who was damage by that, that I’m simply extremely sorry,” interim college President Katrina Armstrong instructed scholar newspaper The Columbia Spectator in her first interview with the outlet since she was named interim president. “And I do know it wasn’t me, however I’m actually sorry.… I noticed it, and I’m actually sorry.”
Armstrong grew to become interim president of the elite college final month when Minouche Shafik stepped down as president amid ongoing condemnation of her dealing with of campus protests final 12 months that always turned violent.
Agitators and scholar protesters flooded school campuses nationwide final college 12 months to protest the warfare in Israel, which additionally included spiking cases of antisemitism and Jewish college students publicly talking out that they don’t really feel protected on some campuses.
IVY LEAGUE ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS’ PROTESTS SPIRAL INTO ‘ACTUAL TERROR ORGANIZATION,’ PROFESSOR WARNS
New York Police Division officers detain dozens of pro-Palestinian college students at Columbia College after they barricaded themselves on the Hamilton Corridor constructing on April 30, 2024. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)
Columbia’s campus was notably rocked by scholar and out of doors agitators demanding the college utterly divest from Israel amid the continuing warfare within the Center East.
This undated photograph offered by Columbia College on Aug. 16, 2024, reveals interim President Katrina Armstrong. (Jorg Meyer Pictures/Columbia College by way of AP)
Agitators and pro-Hamas demonstrators stormed the college’s Hamilton Corridor on the finish of April, occupying the constructing for almost 24 hours earlier than members of the NYPD had been granted permission by the college to take it again from the protesters. The officers had been overwhelmingly wearing riot gear to hold out the operation, and “used electrical saws, stun grenades, and different tactical gear to comb” the constructing, in response to the scholar newspaper’s report revealed Thursday.
COLUMBIA RABBI TELLS JEWISH STUDENTS TO LEAVE CAMPUS, WARNS THAT SCHOOL, NYPD ‘CANNOT GUARANTEE YOUR SAFETY’
Pupil protesters camp on the campus of Columbia College, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Picture/Mary Altaffer, Pool, File)
In the course of the widespread campus protests final college 12 months, the NYPD additionally swept a tent encampment housing the protesters, which was dubbed the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” earlier than the college dismantled the encampment in Might.
NYPD SHARES GLIMPSE INTO RAID REMOVING ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS FROM COLUMBIA’S HAMILTON HALL
All in, the NYPD arrested about 200 protesters on Columbia’s campus final college 12 months.
New York police detain dozens of pro-Palestinian college students at Columbia College in New York on April 30, 2024. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)
“As we face something, we now have to be very dedicated to the ideas, and our ideas are our college students and are enabling an atmosphere the place folks can have freedom of expression, and we help debate, and we do these issues,” Armstrong stated. “We’ve to be dedicated to our ideas when it comes to making certain that our educational actions can proceed. And so I feel we now have to be very clear about that, as a result of that’s the dedication I made to our college students and to our professors.”
STEFANIK ACCUSES COLUMBIA PRESIDENT OF ‘PRO-TERRORIST’ PROFESSOR ‘COVER-UP,’ WARNS OF POTENTIAL FELONY
A protester is faraway from Columbia College’s Hamilton Corridor in New York on April 30, 2024. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)
Members of the Jewish neighborhood on campus ripped Armstrong’s apology in feedback to the New York Publish.
“Why is she apologizing? An apology sends the message that there shouldn’t be penalties for breaking the principles,” Ari Shrage, cofounder of the Columbia Jewish Alumni Affiliation, instructed the New York Publish, calling the remarks “tone deaf.” “That is precisely the alternative of what Columbia wants now.”
Anti-Israel demonstrators collect on the campus of Columbia College on April 29, 2024. (Spencer Platt/Getty Photographs)
“As a substitute of apologizing to the antisemitic protesters, [Armstrong] ought to be apologizing to the Jewish college students for failing to guard them from relentless discrimination and harassment,” scholar Maya Cukierman, 19, instructed the outlet.
HILLARY CLINTON CONDEMNS ANTI-ISRAEL CAMPUS PROTESTS, SAYS ‘OUTSIDE’ GROUPS INFLUENCED STUDENTS: ‘NASTY’
Columbia Regulation Faculty graduate Rory Lancman added that Armstrong kicking off the brand new college 12 months by apologizing is an “ominous signal for Columbia’s dwindling cohort of Jewish college students.”
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A Columbia College spokesperson instructed Fox Digital on Sunday when requested about Armstrong’s feedback that, “From day one, Interim President Armstrong has been centered on participating with and listening to a variety of scholars and communities throughout the college and has heard in regards to the hurt they skilled final educational 12 months.”
“Dr. Armstrong gave a wide-ranging interview with the scholar newspaper that partly centered on the impression of the previous 12 months, and simply as she has as completed whereas talking to many teams throughout our campus, she acknowledged their ache and reiterated how sorry she is to all college students who’re hurting. She stays dedicated to making sure everybody on the college feels protected and revered as we rebuild and heal this 12 months.”
