Four days after stepping down as Columbia University’s interim president, Dr. Katrina Armstrong testified in a contentious closed-door deposition in Washington that she didn’t remember specifics from Columbia’s own report on antisemitism and had trouble describing how she had responded to its recommendations.
“It has been a very, very, very challenging year,” she said, according to a transcript that was posted online and confirmed as authentic by a government official. “I do not have specific recollections, sitting here, of what is in this report or what I recall from this report.”
During several hours of questioning, conducted last Tuesday by the acting general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services as part of an investigation into antisemitism at Columbia, Dr. Armstrong repeatedly said that the past year had been such a “blur” that she had trouble remembering details.
The transcript was leaked to the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication, which first published it on Sunday. Also on Sunday, Columbia’s medical school announced that Dr. Armstrong would be taking a sabbatical to “spend time with her family,” instead of returning to her role as the chief executive of the medical center as had been announced.
The testimony comes at a highly sensitive time for Columbia. The university is trying to convince the Trump administration that it is responding seriously to White House demands to do more to fight antisemitism on campus. Trump officials have already cut about $400 million in federal research funding to Columbia and have told the school that negotiations to restore the grants will begin only if the school meets certain conditions.
In a letter sent on March 21 to federal officials, the university agreed to take steps to rein in demonstrations and increase oversight of its Middle East studies department, among other concessions. Until Dr. Armstrong stepped down a week later, the negotiations were taking place under her oversight.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.