Columbia University’s interim president privately told faculty there was no mask ban in place despite telling the Trump administration it’d enforce one — as some professors dramatically ripped the Ivy League’s deal with the White House as the “biggest crisis since the founding of the republic.”
Katrina Armstrong, the interim head of the embattled university, downplayed a slew of Trump-ordered policy changes during a tense meeting with faculty over the weekend — soon after Columbia caved and agreed to enforce them on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Despite telling Trump officials that masks would be prohibited during future on-campus protests, Armstrong told staffers there was no ban in place, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by the outlet.
Elsewhere in the talks, several professors ripped Armstrong for not standing up to Trump — including one who blasted the ongoing saga as “the biggest crisis since the founding of the republic.”
It comes after dozens of masked protesters flooded the Morningside Heights campus on Monday in defiance of the school’s apparent face covering restrictions.
The Trump admin called for a total ban on masks at campus protests as part of a sweeping list of reforms aimed at cracking down on antisemitism in higher ed.
The Ivy League school was given a month to comply or risk losing around $400 million in federal funding.
Read the full article here
