What is the unsupported span? An Mtrentw mentioned, all trusses have an allowable deflection under load. Length of span divided by 240 or 480 are common specifications. If it was a 50' span under L/240 it would be allowed to deflect 2.5" from no load to full designed load.
I think Dana1 is right and that is a wiring chase and not a structural colunm. You would have to pull a ceiling tile to be sure, but if it were a structural colunm it sould be the last place you would see movement...
It is probably a case of the suspended ceiling installers attaching the ceiling perimeter frame TO the chase when they should have hung it from the ceiling like all the other mid span ceiling framework. That would have allowed the suspended ceiling to float up and down alongside the walls of the chase/colunm as the trusses deflect. If they did this, the chase could then be marked to show the roof defletion and indicate when the roof load started to reach and perhaps exceed design loads("When the ceiling reaches this mark, LEAVE THE BUILDING IMMEDIATELY!"
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Triangular wood framed roof trusses do this also on the bottom chord of the truss under load, and as the top chords expand and contract due to temperature changes. Because of this you don't hard attach the interior/non structural walls to the bottom of the trusses. You instead use a slotted clip that allows the bottom chord of he truss to move up and down. You also need to plan the wall locations and drywall install so as to not hard attach a drywall corner at a chord-wall union. If you do the drywall will crack and or buckle as the truss repeatedly deflects...