The president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, has resigned following months of criticism of her handling of campus protests over the war in Gaza.
“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” Ms Shafik wrote in an email to staff and students on Wednesday. “It has also been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.”
She said: “Over the summer, I’ve been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.”
Her resignation, effective immediately, was unexpected, with the university’s fall semester just weeks away. It comes on the heels of two other Ivy League presidents’ resignations in the past year.
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In her email, Ms Shafik shared that she will be accepting a role with the UK’s foreign secretary, “to chair a review of the government’s approach to international development”.
In a separate letter to the Columbia community, the co-chairs of the university’s board of trustees, David Greenwald and Claire Shipman, wrote: “While we are disappointed to see her leave us, we understand and respect her decision.” They went on to announce that Katrina Armstrong, the chief executive officer of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will serve as the interim president.
“As I step into this role, I am acutely aware of the trials the university has faced over the past year,” Armstrong wrote in a letter to the university community. “We should neither understate their significance, nor allow them to define who we are and what we will become.”
Ms Shafik, whose tenure began in July 2023 and made her the first woman to head the prestigious university in New York City, appeared before Congress in April, in highly publicised hearings regarding allegations of on-campus anti-Semitism. At about the same time, her decision to call the New York police department on to campus, in response to student protests, drew the ire of students and faculty.
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“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,” Ms Shafik said. “As President Lincoln said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’ – we must do all we can to resist the forces of polarisation in our community.”
Columbia was widely seen as the centre of the student-led pro-Palestinian protests, sparking a widespread movement of demonstrations at universities across the US and abroad. The university faced criticism for its heavy-handed tactics, which included summoning police to dismantle the student protest camp, and was also accused of failing to make Jewish students feel safe.
Although smaller demonstrations had begun in October, the university made headlines when students erected dozens of tents on the south lawn in April. As Ms Shafik appeared before Congress, students at the encampment called for the university to divest from Israel.
In response, Ms Shafik authorised New York police to move on to campus and break up the encampments, claiming they “pose a clear and present danger to the substantial functioning of the university”. Forty-six students were arrested and, after students continued their occupation, many more were suspended. Media were prohibited from entering campus to cover the arrests.
Hundreds of faculty members issued statements condemning Ms Shafik’s crackdown on student protesters, and walked out in support of their students. The university cancelled its commencement ceremony the following month.
Immediately after the news of Shafik’s resignation, reports of pro-Palestinian protesters celebrating near the university began appearing on X as some members of the Columbia community voiced their support for the change of leadership.
“Regardless of who leads Columbia, the students will continue their activism and actions until Columbia divests from Israeli apartheid,” Mahmoud Khalil, a student negotiator on behalf of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, told the New York Times.
The announcement also comes days after the school confirmed that three deans had resigned after officials said they exchanged disparaging texts during a campus discussion about Jewish life and anti-Semitism. Ms Shafik said in a July 8th letter to the school community that the messages were unprofessional and “disturbingly touched on ancient anti-Semitic tropes”.
Meanwhile, Elise Stefanik, one of the congressional representatives most critical of Ms Shafik’s handling of reports of anti-Semitism on campus, wrote: “THREE DOWN, so many to go,” adding “after failing to protect Jewish students and negotiating with pro-Hamas terrorists, this forced resignation is long overdue”.
– Guardian service