Columbia university President Shafik resigns after months of campus tumult

By Janet Lorin

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned after a tumultuous period sparked by protests over the war in Gaza, becoming the third leader of an Ivy League school to depart over turmoil tied to the conflict and accusations of antisemitism on campus.
 

Shafik, an Egypt-born economist and former president of the London School of Economics, said late Wednesday that she will step down effective immediately, a little over a year after starting the job.

“It has been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community,” Shafik wrote in a statement. “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.”

She will be replaced on an interim basis by Katrina Armstrong, chief executive officer of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the co-chairs of the board of the trustees said in a separate statement. 

The sudden departure less than three weeks before classes start signals that tumult may resume as college students across the US head back to campuses. The simmering tensions at Columbia burst onto the global stage in the spring as pro-Palestinian protesters set up encampments at the New York school, ultimately leading Shafik to call in police to remove them.

Armstrong, in a letter to the campus on Wednesday, said challenging times “present both the opportunity and the responsibility for serious leadership to emerge” across the community.

“As I step into this role, I am acutely aware of the trials the University has faced over the past year,” she said. “We should neither understate their significance, nor allow them to define who we are and what we will become.”

Campus Protests
 

Shafik, who also held leadership positions at the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England, had until now avoided the fate of two other Ivy League presidents, Claudine Gay of Harvard University and Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania. They stepped down after much-criticized congressional testimony in December where they gave evasive answers about whether calls for genocide against Jews would be a violation of university policies.

Shafik, 62, testified before the same committee in April about antisemitism at Columbia as protests were intensifying on campus over Israel’s actions in Gaza. 

Columbia’s board handed Shafik their backing even in the wake of bipartisan calls for her to depart led by Republican Representative Elise Stefanik of New York. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia on April 24 to meet with Jewish students and deliver remarks on what his office called the “troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America’s college campuses.”

Some protesters, including at Columbia and Berkeley, have threatened Jewish students and expressed support for Hamas. The group, designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, ignited the conflict when it attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

On campus, the protests came to a head when Shafik called in the New York Police Department to remove people who had barricaded themselves inside Hamilton Hall, a campus building where students famously staged a similar protest in 1968. More than 100 people were arrested on charges ranging from trespassing to burglary, and Shafik faced a torrent of criticism from students and faculty for her response.

In their statement Wednesday, the board trustee co-chairs praised Shafik for her tenure and said they “regretfully” accepted her resignation.

“While we are disappointed to see her leave us, we understand and respect her decision,” said the co-chairs, David Greenwald and Claire Shipman.

Stefanik, who led the questioning of Gay and Magill, lauded Shafik’s exit on social media and signaled that more leaders of elite colleges still need to be forced out. Johnson, the House speaker, said in a statement that the resignation is “long overdue.”

THREE DOWN, so many to go.

As I have said consistently since her catastrophic testimony at the Education and Workforce Committee hearing, Columbia University’s President Minouche Shafik’s failed presidency was untenable and that is was only a matter of time before her…

— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) August 14, 2024
 

Shafik said she’s been asked by the UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, to chair a review of the government’s approach to international development. She signaled how hard the year has been personally and professionally.

“I have tried to navigate a path that upholds academic principles and treats everyone with fairness and compassion,” she wrote in the statement. “It has been distressing—for the community, for me as president and on a personal level— to find myself, colleagues, and students the subject of threats and abuse.”