Columbia University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik testifies before a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on “Columbia University’s Response to Anti-Semitism,” on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 17, 2024.
Ken Cedeno | Reuters
Columbia University’s president announced her resignation Wednesday after just over a year on the job, following months of criticism over protests on the Manhattan campus over the war in Gaza.
Nemat “Minouche” Shafik had been criticized by anti-war protesters as well as House Republicans in Congress, but for different reasons.
In a letter in the Columbia community, Shafik said while she was president “we have made progress in many important areas.”
“However, it was also a time of turmoil where it was difficult to overcome divergent views in our community,” he said. “This period has had a significant impact on my family, as it has on others in our community.”
Shafik, an economist who became president of the Ivy League school in July 2023, has twice asked the New York Police Department to clear encampments set up this spring by protesters in an act of solidarity with the Palestinians.
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After the first camp on the Manhattan campus was cleaned a second grew. Protesters took control of Hamilton Hall and the NYPD cleared it and the camp at the university’s request.
In April, Shafik appeared before a House committee where he faced questions for her handling of anti-Semitism on campus.
The resignation is effective Wednesday, Shafiq wrote in the letter.
“Over the course of the summer, I was able to reflect and decided that moving to this point would better allow Columbia to overcome the challenges ahead of me,” Shafik wrote. “I am making this announcement now so that new leadership can be in place before the new term begins.”
Columbia’s Board of Trustees said in a statement that it “regretfully accepts Minouche Shafik’s decision to step down as president of the University.”
Katrina Armstrong was appointed interim president. She is the CEO of Columbia University Irving Medical Center and leads the Columbia Health and Biomedical Sciences Campus.
“With optimism and determination, let us move forward together, embracing the opportunity to renew our vision and strengthen our community,” Armstrong wrote in a letter about his appointment as interim president.
The student protest group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine welcomed the resignation in a post on X. He had called on Shafiq to resign.
“After months of shouting ‘Minouche Shafik you can’t hide’ he finally got the memo,” the group said. “To be clear, any future president who does not heed the overwhelming demand of Columbia’s student body for divestment will end up exactly as President Shafiq did.”
Protests erupted on college campuses across the United States following the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians and the Israeli-initiated war against Hamas in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people there.
Many protest groups called their schools to assign from Israel’s financial support, including those in the Columbia protests.
Shafik wrote in the letter announcing her resignation that she holds dear values, which she said are Columbia’s values, which include freedom of speech, openness to new ideas “and zero tolerance for any kind of discrimination.”
“Even as tension, division and politicization have disrupted our campus over the past year, our core mission and values endure and will continue to guide us in meeting the challenges ahead,” Shafik wrote.
“I have tried to follow a path that upholds academic principles and treats everyone with fairness and compassion. It was painful — for the community, for me as president, and on a personal level — to find myself, colleagues and students the subject of threats and abuse,” he wrote.
Presidents of some universities were targeted by Republican lawmakers who claimed the campus protests were anti-Semitic.
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned in December after drawing criticism from the White House, lawmakers and others after appearing to dodge a question at a congressional hearing about anti-Semitism on campus.
Harvard University President Claudine Gay, he resigned about a month laterin early January.
Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., who had celebrated previous resignations, issued a statement Wednesday night when he said, “Three down, so much to go.”
