Columbia College President Minouche Shafik resigned Wednesday after a short, tumultuous tenure that noticed the top of the distinguished New York college face heavy scrutiny for her dealing with of protests and campus divisions over the Israel-Hamas warfare.
The Ivy League college in higher Manhattan was roiled this 12 months by pupil demonstrations, culminating in scenes of cops carrying zip ties and riot shields storming a constructing that had been occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters. Related protests swept school campuses nationwide, with many resulting in violent clashes with police and 1000’s of arrests.
The announcement additionally comes simply days after the college confirmed that three deans had resigned after officers stated they exchanged disparaging texts throughout a campus dialogue about Jewish life and antisemitism.
Shafik was additionally among the many college leaders referred to as for questioning earlier than Congress earlier this 12 months. She was closely criticized by Republicans who accused her of not doing sufficient to fight considerations about antisemitism on Columbia’s campus.
Shafik, who started the function in July final 12 months, introduced her resignation in an emailed letter to the college group simply weeks earlier than the beginning of lessons on Sept. 3. The college on Monday started proscribing campus entry to folks with Columbia IDs and registered friends, saying it needed to curb “potential disruptions” as the brand new semester nears.
In her letter, Shafik heralded “progress in a number of important areas” however lamented that in her tenure it was “difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.”
“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in the community,” she wrote. “Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.”
Columbia’s Board of Trustees in the meantime introduced that Katrina Armstrong, the CEO of Columbia College Irving Medical Middle, will function interim president.
“Challenging times present both the opportunity and the responsibility for serious leadership to emerge from every group and individual within a community,” stated Armstrong, who can also be the chief vp for the college’s Well being and Biomedical Sciences. “As I step into this role, I am acutely aware of the trials the University has faced over the past year.”
Professional-Palestinian protesters first arrange tent encampments on Columbia’s campus throughout Shafik’s congressional testimony in mid-April, the place she denounced antisemitism however confronted criticism for the way she’d responded to college and college students accused of bias.
The varsity despatched in police to clear the tents the next day, just for the scholars to return and encourage a wave of comparable protests at campuses throughout the nation, with college students calling for colleges to chop monetary ties with Israel and the businesses supporting the warfare.
Because the protest rolled on for weeks, the college was thrust into the nationwide highlight. Republican Home Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed up to denounce the encampment, whereas Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got here to assist it.
Finally, talks between the college and the protesters got here to a standstill, and because the college set a deadline for the activists to filter out, a gaggle as an alternative took over Hamilton Corridor.
Even after the protests have been cleared, Columbia determined to cancel its university-wide graduation ceremony, as an alternative choosing a sequence of smaller, school-based ceremonies.
The campus was largely quiet this summer time, however a conservative information outlet in June printed photos of what it stated have been textual content messages exchanged by directors whereas attending the Could 31 panel dialogue “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present and Future.”
The officers have been faraway from their posts, with Shafik saying in a July 8 letter to the college group that the messages have been unprofessional and “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes.”
Shafik’s critics have been fast to cheer the tip of her tenure, which is among the shortest in class historical past.
Johnson, the home speaker, stated her resignation was “long overdue” and will function a cautionary instance to different college directors that “tolerating or protecting antisemites is unacceptable and will have consequences.”
The coed group Columbia College students for Justice in Palestine wrote in a put up on the social media platform X that Shafik “finally got the memo” after months of protests. The campus chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace wrote it can “not be placated by her removal as the university’s repression of the pro-Palestinian student movement continues.”
Different distinguished Ivy League leaders have stepped down in latest months, largely resulting from their response to the risky protests on campus.
College of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned in December after lower than two years on the job amid stress from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional listening to the place she was unable to say underneath repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the college’s conduct coverage.
And in January, Harvard College President Claudine Homosexual resigned amid plagiarism accusations and related criticism over her testimony earlier than Congress.
Shafik stated she’s going to return to the UK to steer an effort by the international secretary’s workplace to evaluation the federal government’s strategy to worldwide improvement.
“I am very pleased and appreciative that this will afford me the opportunity to return to work on fighting global poverty and promoting sustainable development, areas of lifelong interest to me,” she wrote.
Shafik was the primary girl to tackle the function, becoming a member of a number of ladies newly appointed to take the reins at Ivy League establishments.
The Egyptian-born economist beforehand led the London College of Economics, however had made her mark largely exterior academia with roles on the World Financial institution, the UK’s Division for Worldwide Growth, the Worldwide Financial Fund and the Financial institution of England.
On the time of Shafik’s appointment, Columbia Board of Trustees chair Jonathan Lavine had described her as a frontrunner with an “unshakable confidence in the vital role institutions of higher education can and must play in solving the world’s most complex problems.”
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Related Press reporter Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this story.
