Columbia University President Nemat Minouche Shafik resigned late Wednesday, nearly four months after massive pro-Palestinian protests on campus over Israel’s war in Gaza. “This has been a period of turmoil in which it has been difficult to overcome divergent opinions within our community. This period has taken a significant toll on my family, as well as other members of our community,” Shafik said in an email to staff and students. “Over the summer I have been able to reflect and have decided that my departure at this time would better enable Columbia to meet the challenges ahead,” said Shafik, an economist who has spent much of her career in London. The resignation will take effect immediately, and Shafik will be replaced by another woman, the dean of the medical school.
Shafik is the third female rector of an Ivy League institution – which includes the most prestigious universities in the US – to resign, after her colleagues from Pennsylvania and Harvard, last December and January, respectively. Criticism of the management of the rectors in the face of the alleged increase in anti-Semitic demonstrations on campus, in some cases reported to the courts by Jewish students, has not only derailed the careers of the three women, but also the border between freedom of expression and the aforementioned hate messages. If last December, the investigation of a House of Representatives Education Committee attacked the rectors of Pennsylvania, Harvard and MIT, in a new front of the Republicans’ cultural wars against the liberal bastions that are the campuses, the resignation of Shafik, who took up her post just over a year ago, may neutralize in the short term the expectation surrounding the beginning of the academic year, without solving the underlying problem.
His departure comes just three weeks before the start of the fall semester, after he sparked a new controversy for suggesting that he would give more powers to the campus security service —some 300 members, from private companies— to arrest students who cause disruption to academic life (currently, guards are prohibited from physically interacting with students). The plan, revealed by the newspaper The Wall Street Journal The resignation of Shafik, who resigned two weeks ago, greatly disturbed student associations and many professors who have defended their right to express themselves. Shafik’s resignation follows the resignation in June of three university deans for inappropriate or insensitive comments on the hotly debated topic of political correctness, exacerbated by responses to the war.
Columbia trustees have repeatedly said they support Shafik’s leadership, and the campus had remained largely quiet over the summer, albeit with major entrances limited. Faced with accusations that he allowed anti-Semitic demonstrations on campus, Shafik appeared conciliatory before the congressional committee in April, but his words rankled many faculty members. He called in police on campus twice, to dismantle encampments and, most recently, to clear out an occupied building. These actions angered some students and faculty, while others in the community, particularly major donors, believed he had not done enough to protect Jewish students on campus.
Much of his tenure has been a sharp reminder of the challenges university presidents face in balancing student safety, free speech and academic freedom. Few presidents have experienced that dilemma more than Shafik, as Columbia became the epicenter of a protest in April that spanned the country from coast to coast for weeks. The protests have given House Republicans fresh ammunition against Democrats in an election year when the Gaza war has also become a topic of debate, especially in divided Democratic ranks.
Like domino pieces, the resignations of Shafik — a delayed resignation — Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Claudine Gay, president of Harvard, are joined by that of another head of an Ivy League school, Martha E. Pollack, president of Cornell University, who was not questioned by the legislators on the committee and stressed that the decision to throw in the towel was solely hers, although the truth is that her departure occurred amid tension over disciplinary measures taken against pro-Palestinian student activists at the center.
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