Columbia’s president resigns after months of turmoil punctuated by clashes over Israel-Hamas war

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned Wednesday after a brief, tumultuous tenure that saw the head of the prestigious New York university face heavy scrutiny for her handling of protests and campus divisions over the Israel-Hamas war.

The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan was roiled this year by student demonstrations, culminating in scenes of police officers carrying zip ties and riot shields storming a building that had been occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters. Similar protests swept college campuses nationwide, with many leading to violent clashes with police and thousands of arrests.

The announcement also comes just 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 antisemitism.

Shafik was also among the university leaders called for questioning before Congress earlier this year. She was heavily criticized by Republicans who accused her of not doing enough to combat concerns about antisemitism on Columbia’s campus.

Shafik, who began the role in July last year, announced her resignation in an emailed letter to the university community just weeks before the start of classes on Sept. 3. The university on Monday began restricting campus access to people with Columbia IDs and registered guests, saying it wanted to curb “potential disruptions” as the new semester nears.

In her letter, Shafik heralded “progress in a number of important areas” but lamented that during her tenure it was “difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.”

“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in the community,” she wrote. “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.”

Columbia’s Board of Trustees meanwhile announced that Katrina Armstrong, the CEO of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will serve as interim president.

“Challenging times present both the opportunity and the responsibility for serious leadership to emerge from every group and individual within a community,” said Armstrong, who is also the executive vice president for the university’s Health and Biomedical Sciences. “As I step into this role, I am acutely aware of the trials the University has faced over the past year.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters first set up tent encampments on Columbia’s campus during Shafik’s congressional testimony in mid-April, where she denounced antisemitism but faced criticism for how she’d responded to faculty and students accused of bias.

The school sent in police to clear the tents the following day, only for the students to return and inspire a wave of similar protests at campuses across the country, with students calling for schools to cut financial ties with Israel and the companies supporting the war.

As the protest rolled on for weeks, the school was thrust into the national spotlight. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson showed up to denounce the encampment, while Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came to support it.

Eventually, talks between the school and the protesters came to a standstill, and as the school set a deadline for the activists to clear out, a group instead took over Hamilton Hall.

Even after the protests were cleared, Columbia decided to cancel its university-wide commencement ceremony, instead opting for a series of smaller, school-based ceremonies.

The campus was mostly quiet this summer, but a conservative news outlet in June published images of what it said were text messages exchanged by administrators while attending the May 31 panel discussion “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present and Future.”

The officials were removed from their posts, with Shafik saying in a July 8 letter to the school community that the messages were unprofessional and “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes.”

Shafik’s critics were quick to cheer the end of her tenure, which is one of the shortest in school history.

Johnson, the house speaker, said her resignation was “long overdue” and should serve as a cautionary example to other university administrators that “tolerating or protecting antisemites is unacceptable and will have consequences.”

The student group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine wrote in a post on the social media platform X that Shafik “finally got the memo” after months of protests. The campus chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace wrote it will “not be placated by her removal as the university’s repression of the pro-Palestinian student movement continues.”

Other prominent Ivy League leaders have stepped down in recent months, in large part due to their response to the volatile protests on campus.

University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned in December after less than two years on the job amid pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.

And in January, Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned amid plagiarism accusations and similar criticism over her testimony before Congress.

Shafik said she will return to the United Kingdom to lead an effort by the foreign secretary’s office to review the government’s approach to international development.

“I am very pleased and appreciative that this will afford me the opportunity to return to work on fighting global poverty and promoting sustainable development, areas of lifelong interest to me,” she wrote.

Shafik was the first woman to take on the role, joining several women newly appointed to take the reins at Ivy League institutions.

The Egyptian-born economist previously led the London School of Economics, but had made her mark largely outside academia with roles at the World Bank, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England.

At the time of Shafik’s appointment, Columbia Board of Trustees chair Jonathan Lavine had described her as a leader with an “unshakable confidence in the vital role institutions of higher education can and must play in solving the world’s most complex problems.”

___

Associated Press reporter Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this story.