Columbia College president resigns months after Israel-Hamas battle protests roiled campus

The president of Columbia College introduced her resignation Wednesday after just a little greater than a 12 months on the job, following months of criticism over protests on the Manhattan campus over the battle in Gaza.

Nemat “Minouche” Shafik had been criticized by anti-war protesters in addition to by Home Republicans in Congress, however for various causes.

In a letter to the Columbia neighborhood, Shafik stated whereas she was president “we now have made progress in a lot of vital areas.”

“Nonetheless, it has additionally been a interval of turmoil the place it has been tough to beat divergent views throughout our neighborhood,” she stated. “This era has taken a substantial toll on my household, because it has for others in our neighborhood.”

Shafik, an economist who grew to become president of the Ivy League faculty in July 2023, requested the New York Metropolis Police Division twice to clear encampments arrange this spring by protesters in what demonstrators stated was an act of solidarity with Palestinians.

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After the primary encampment on the Manhattan campus was cleared a second one grew. Protesters took control of Hamilton Hall and the NYPD cleared it and the encampment on the request of the college.

In April, Shafik appeared earlier than a Home committee where she faced questions about her dealing with of antisemitism on campus.

The resignation is efficient Wednesday, Shafik wrote within the letter.

“Over the summer time, I’ve been capable of replicate and have determined that my transferring on at this level would finest allow Columbia to traverse the challenges forward,” Shafik wrote. “I’m making this announcement now in order that new management may be in place earlier than the brand new time period begins.”

Columbia’s Board of Trustees stated in an announcement that it “regretfully accepts Minouche Shafik’s choice to step down as president of the College.”

Katrina Armstrong was named interim president. She is CEO of the Columbia College Irving Medical Heart and leads Columbia’s well being and biomedical sciences campus.

“With optimism and resolve, allow us to transfer ahead collectively, embracing the chance to resume our imaginative and prescient and strengthen our neighborhood,” Armstrong wrote in a letter about being named interim president.

The scholar protest group Columbia College students for Justice in Palestine welcomed the resignation in a submit on X. It had referred to as on Shafik to resign.

“After months of chanting “Minouche Shafik you may’t conceal” she lastly acquired the memo,” the group stated. “To be clear, any future president who doesn’t pay heed to the Columbia pupil physique’s overwhelming demand for divestment will find yourself precisely as President Shafik did.”

Protests erupted in school campuses throughout the US following the Oct. 7 terror assaults by Hamas towards Israeli civilians, and the following battle launched by Israel towards Hamas in Gaza that has killed tens of hundreds of individuals there.

Many protest teams referred to as for his or her colleges to divest from monetary assist of Israel, together with these at Columbia demonstrations.

Shafik wrote within the letter asserting her resignation that she holds pricey values which she stated are Columbia’s values, which embrace free speech, openness to new concepts “and nil tolerance for discrimination of any form.”

“Whilst rigidity, division, and politicization have disrupted our campus during the last 12 months, our core mission and values endure and can proceed to information us in assembly the challenges forward,” Shafik wrote.

“I’ve tried to navigate a path that upholds educational ideas and treats everybody with equity and compassion. It has been distressing — for the neighborhood, for me as president and on a private stage — to search out myself, colleagues, and college students the topic of threats and abuse,” she wrote.

Heads of some universities grew to become focused by Republican lawmakers who alleged that demonstrations on faculty campuses had been antisemitic.

College of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned in December after being criticized by the White Home, lawmakers and others after showing to dodge a query at a congressional listening to on campus antisemitism.

Harvard College’s president, Claudine Homosexual, resigned around a month later, in early January.

Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who had celebrated the sooner resignations, issued a statement Wednesday evening that stated: “Three down, so many to go.”