Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced her resignation Wednesday, citing the “crisis period” of the spring when the New York campus was the epicenter of student protests against the Gaza war and controversy over rising anti-Semitism.
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The immediate departure of this American economist of Egyptian origin, which she announced in a letter to the teaching and student community, is a surprise to the extent that she had escaped the wave of resignations last winter of her counterparts at the University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Magill, and Harvard, Claudine Gay.
“I am making this announcement now so that the new leadership is in place before the start of the next semester,” Shafik wrote “with sadness” in an email obtained by AFP.
“It has been a time of crisis in which it has been difficult to overcome the divergent opinions within our community,” she laments.
She reported “threats”, “insults” and even “mistreatment” against her, “colleagues” and “students” and “decided” that her “resignation will allow Columbia to better face the challenges to come”.
“We must all do everything in our power to resist the forces of polarization,” the now former president of Columbia implores.
The university, which she has headed since July 2023, was one of the first to mobilize at the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in response to the Palestinian movement’s bloody attack on its soil on October 7.
AFP
Columbia spearheaded campus protests and occupations across the United States in April, reminiscent of the anti-Vietnam War movement in 1968.
At Ms. Shafik’s call, the New York police forcibly removed several dozen activists and students on April 30, and the grand graduation ceremony was canceled.
In early July, three Columbia administrators were dismissed over text messages exchanged during a public forum in May, which conservative media outlets reported were revealing “old anti-Semitic prejudices,” according to the presidency.
Ahead of the start of the academic year in a few weeks, Columbia announced Friday that it would restrict public access to its sprawling, tree-lined campus in northern Manhattan.
This private university with a colossal budget financed by donors and large companies, some of which are linked to Israel, welcomes tens of thousands of students and professors.
The presidency has been accused of not having fought hard enough against words or actions targeting Jewish students, but also of having been too heavy-handed against small pro-Palestinian groups.
Ms. Shafik had been questioned by Congress last winter along with other university presidents, the Republican right accusing them of not having been firm and unequivocal enough in the face of a rise in anti-Semitism on campuses.
House Republican Majority Leader Mike Johnson, who came to Columbia at the height of the crisis to denounce the “terrorism” of the protests, welcomed Shafik’s departure in a statement Wednesday evening.
