Columbia University has named University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin as its next president as it tries to move forward from two years of turmoil. Columbia was paralyzed by campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war in 2024. And then last year, President Donald Trump waged a campaign to squelch student activism and force changes at the Ivy League school. His administration imprisoned some student activist who weren't U.S. citizens. It also canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding in an effort to force changes in how universities dealt with protests, which students they admitted and what they taught in classrooms. Mnookin will assume her new post on July 1, becoming Columbia’s fifth leader in the past four years.
