NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University President Minouche Shafik The president of a prestigious New York university, who faced intense scrutiny over his handling of protests and campus divisions over the Israel-Hamas war, resigned on Wednesday after a short and tumultuous tenure.
The Ivy League university in northern Manhattan has been rocked by student protests this year. Finally Police carrying zip ties and riot shields storm a building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters. Similar protests have spread to university campuses across the country, many of which have led to violent clashes with police and thousands of arrests.
The announcement was made by the school Three deans resigned Officials said the two exchanged derogatory text messages during a campus discussion about Jewish life and anti-Semitism.
Shafiq was also one of the university’s leaders. Requested questioning She spoke before Congress earlier this year, where Republican lawmakers sharply criticized her for not doing enough to combat concerns about anti-Semitism on Columbia’s campus.
Shafik, who took up his post last July, announced his resignation in an email to university officials just weeks before classes were due to begin on Sept. 3. The university on Monday began restricting access to campus for people with Columbia University IDs and registered guests, saying it wanted to limit “potential confusion” as the new semester approaches.
In his letter, Shafik praised “progress in many important areas” but lamented that during his tenure “it has been difficult to overcome differences within the community.”
“This period has placed an enormous strain on my family, as well as others in our community,” she wrote. “Over the summer I reflected and have decided that it is in Columbia’s best interest for me to step down at this time to help navigate the challenges ahead.”
Meanwhile, the Columbia University Board of Trustees announced that Katrina Armstrong, CEO of Columbia Irving Medical Center, will serve as interim president.
“Challenging times present both an opportunity and a responsibility for serious leadership to come from all groups and individuals in our community,” said Armstrong, who also serves as the university’s executive vice chancellor for health and biomedical sciences. “In assuming this role, I am acutely aware of the challenges the university has faced over the past year.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters Initial Setup Shafik, who staged a tent protest on the Columbia campus during his congressional testimony in mid-April, condemned anti-Semitism but faced criticism for how he dealt with faculty and students who were accused of bigotry.
The school sent police Packing up the tent The next day the students returned A similar wave of protests On college campuses across the country, students demanded that their schools sever financial ties with Israel and companies that support war.
As the protests continued for weeks, the school gained national attention. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson Appeared While condemning the encampments, Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez I came to support it.
Eventually, talks between the school and the protesters reached a deadlock, and the school gave the activists a deadline to leave, so a group moved in instead. took over Hamilton Hall.
Even after the protests subsided, Colombia Cancel graduation ceremonies for the entire universityInstead, they opted for a series of smaller, school-based ceremonies.
The campus was largely quiet this summer, but conservative news media in June published images of text messages purportedly exchanged by university administrators attending a May 31 panel discussion called “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present and Future.”
The authorities Removed from postIn a July 8 letter to school officials, Shafik called the message unprofessional and “disturbingly touches on long-standing anti-Semitic tropes.”
Shafik’s critics were quick to welcome the end of her term. The shortest in the school’s history.
Speaker Johnson said her resignation was “long overdue” and should serve as a warning example to other university administrators that “tolerating or protecting anti-Semites is unacceptable and there are consequences.”
Columbia Students for Justice for Palestine Post to social media platform X Shafik said after months of protests, “we finally got the memo.” Jewish Voice for Peace writes: “Her dismissal will not quell the university’s ongoing crackdown on pro-Palestinian student activism.”
Other prominent Ivy League leaders have resigned in recent months, largely in response to volatile protests on campuses.
University of Pennsylvania President Liz McGill resigned in December after less than two years in the position. Amid pressure and criticism from donors During her testimony at a congressional hearing, she repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether calling for the genocide of Jews on campus would violate the school’s code of conduct.
And in January, Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned amid plagiarism allegations. Similar criticism About her testimony before Congress.
Shafik said he was returning to the UK to lead efforts by the Foreign Secretary’s office to review the government’s approach to international development.
“I am excited and grateful for this opportunity to return to my lifelong interest: combating world poverty and promoting sustainable development,” she wrote.
Shafik is the first woman to hold this position. Newly appointed women At an Ivy League university.
The Egyptian-born economist previously headed the London School of Economics but has mainly achieved prominence outside academia, having held positions at the World Bank, the UK Department for International Development, the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England.
At the time of Shafik’s appointment, Jonathan Rabin, chairman of the Columbia University Board of Trustees, described her as a leader with “an unwavering confidence in the critical role that higher education can and must play in solving the world’s most complex problems.”
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Associated Press writer Jake Offenharts in New York contributed to this report.
