Columbia University President on Gaza Protests Unrest

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has resigned from her post amid a debate over free speech following campus protests against the Gaza war.

Ms. Shafik’s resignation comes just a year after she took up her post at the private Ivy League university in New York, and just weeks before the start of the fall semester.

Ms Shafik is now the third president of an Ivy League university to resign over her handling of the anti-war protests in Gaza.

In April, Ms. Shafik authorized New York Police Department officers to invade the campus, a controversial decision that led to the arrests of about 100 students who were occupying a university building.

The incident marks the first time mass arrests have taken place on Columbia’s campus since anti-Vietnam War protests more than five decades ago.

The decision sparked protests at dozens of universities across the United States and Canada.

In an email to students and faculty Wednesday, Shafik wrote that she had been through a “time of turmoil where it was difficult to navigate the differing views within our community.”

“This period has had a significant impact on my family, as well as on other members of our community.”

Katrina Armstrong, CEO of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will serve as interim president.

“Over the summer, I have had a chance to reflect and have decided that my departure at this time would better position Columbia to meet the challenges ahead,” Shafik wrote in her letter.

“I have tried to follow a path that respects academic principles and treats everyone with fairness and compassion,” she continued.

“It has been devastating – for the community, for me as president, and personally – to find myself, my colleagues, and my students subjected to threats and abuse.”

Student anger over Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas has raised sharp questions for university leaders, who are already grappling with heated debates on campus about what is happening in the Middle East.

American college campuses have become a focal point for protests against the Gaza war since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent incursion into the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Leaders from Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

The presidents of Harvard and UPenn ultimately resigned following criticism over their handling of campus protests and congressional testimony, including their refusal to say that calling for the deaths of Jews might violate university policy.

In April, Shafik defended her school’s efforts to combat anti-Semitism to Congress, saying there had been an increase in such hatred on campus and that the university was working to protect students.

Ms Shafik is a highly respected Egyptian-born economist who has worked for the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England.

She was also previously President of the London School of Economics.

Ms Shafik, who was made a dame in 2015, was previously considered to be on the shortlist for the post of Bank of England governor, the BBC reported in 2019.

Her letter adds that she has been commissioned by the British Foreign Secretary to lead a “review of the government’s approach to international development and how to improve its capabilities”.

The decision, she wrote, “allows me to return to the House of Lords and re-engage in the important legislative programme being proposed by the new UK government.”

His resignation comes after three Columbia University deans also resigned last week after text messages showed the group used “anti-Semitic tropes” when discussing Jewish students.

The text exchanges were initially released by the Republican-led House Education and Workforce Committee in early July.

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, chairwoman of the congressional committee, welcomed the decision of the three administrators to resign.

“It’s about time. Actions have consequences,” she said in a statement Thursday, adding that the decision should have been made “months ago.”

“Instead, the university continues to send mixed signals,” she continued, adding that the administration is allowing a dean who has not resigned to “fly under the radar with no real consequences.”