Columbia Interim President Katrina Armstrong Apologizes After Police Cleared Campus Last Year

Columbia University interim president Katrina Armstrong has come under fire from members of the school's Jewish community after she apologized to anyone who felt “hurt” by the administration's decision to clear the campus of destructive anti-Israel protests last spring.

Dr. Armstrong issued the mea culpa in an interview with the Ivy League School newspaper, the Columbia Spectator after being asked about the school's request to the New York Police Department to dismantle a sprawling encampment and remove protesters from Hamilton Hall on separate days last April.

“I know it's hard to say, but I understand that I have this job, right? So if you could just say to everybody who was hurt by this, I'm so sorry,” Armstrong told the newspaper that published the story Thursday morning.

“And I know it wasn’t me, but I’m so sorry… I saw it and I’m so sorry.”

Armstrong assumed his current role after former Columbia president Minouche Shafik suddenly resigned in August after facing intense criticism for her handling of the ongoing — and sometimes destructive — anti-Israel demonstrations following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack and subsequent war in Gaza.

More than 100 protesters, part of a Gaza solidarity camp in a campus park, were detained after Shafik called on the NYPD to enter the campus. About two weeks later, hundreds of police officers were allowed back onto campus to detain more than 100 protesters from Hamilton Hall.

On both occasions, the elite school said it regretted calling police but stressed that officials had no choice. The school accused protesters occupying Hamilton Hall of forcing school security officers out of the building and threatening a custodian.

Armstrong's apology was criticized by Jewish members of the school community.

“Instead of apologizing to anti-Semitic protesters, (Armstrong) should apologize to Jewish students for failing to protect them from relentless discrimination and harassment,” student Maya Cukierman, 19, told The Post.

Matthew Schweber, who sits on the school’s Jewish alumni association, said the apology “only dramatizes the moral rot, intellectual bankruptcy and institutional anti-Semitism that plagues my alma mater.”

Columbia Law School graduate Rory Lancman called Armstrong's apology an “ominous sign” as the new school gets underway.

“It is an ominous sign for Columbia's dwindling cohort of Jewish students that its interim president is beginning the new academic year by apologizing for Columbia's application of basic time, place and manner restrictions to anti-Israel protesters who terrorized Columbia's Jewish community” and affected other students and staff on campus, said Lancman, who is a senior adviser at the Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

And Ari Shrage, who is the director of the school's Jewish alumni association, called Armstrong's statement “tone deaf.”

“Why is he apologizing? An apology sends the message that there should be no consequences for breaking the rules,” she said. “This is exactly the opposite of what Columbia needs right now.”

The school told The Post in a statement that Armstrong has worked to engage and listen to a broad range of students and communities on campus “and has heard about the harm they experienced last academic year.”

“Dr. Armstrong gave a wide-ranging interview to the student newspaper that focused in part on the impact of the past year and, as she has done when speaking to many groups across our campus, acknowledged her grief and reiterated how deeply sorry she is to all students who are suffering,” a spokesperson said.

“She remains committed to ensuring that everyone at the university feels safe and respected as we rebuild and heal this year.

Armstrong, who also heads the school's Irving Medical Center, also told the Columbia Spectator that the school must commit to allowing students the ability to express their views and engage in debate while ensuring that academic activities continue.

He stressed that he wants to “keep this campus calm and safe.”

“I just want to say that I see the harm that was done,” Armstrong said. “And I am deeply committed to working with all of you, with the entire community, both to address that harm and to understand it.”