Columbia President's Resignation

Columbia University President Katrina Armstrong’s resignation statement serves as a worthy example for analysis. The political situation is extremely controversial, and she avoids direct references.

Her emphasis is on the “interim” nature of her position. In other words, she wasn’t planning to stay long, anyway. She mentions this early in her short statement and reinforces her “few months” of service at the end. She also emphasizes up front that she will return to her former role at the university.

Armstrong speaks well of Columbia and subtly refers to the controversy, using words like “healing” and “moving forward.” At the end, she hints at having a bigger voice: “The world needs Columbia University, and you can be assured that I will do everything I can to tell that story.”

It’s difficult to think of what else she could reasonably say, given the university’s precarious situation with the government and with all its many constituents. She may have said just enough.

This is one of those messages that could be classified as positive or negative news, depending on the receiver’s perspective. But appointing yet another interim president is not great, for sure.