Columbia president leaves after campus unrest over Gaza

University President Minouche Shafik formally stepped down on Wednesday, citing a recent period of turmoil, according to a public letter. The resignation comes less than a year after her Oct. 4 inauguration and months after her congressional testimony on the school’s measures to combat anti-Semitism on campus.

Did she specifically say why she’s stepping down? It’s been difficult to overcome differing views across the Columbia community, which has taken a considerable personal toll, Shafik wrote in her letter. Her resignation would allow the school to better meet challenges in the coming school year, she added. She tried to treat everyone with fairness and compassion as president, but seeing herself, her colleagues, and students receive threats and abuse has been distressing, she wrote. Anti-Semitic tensions on campus reached a boiling point in spring, prompting Columbia to move classes online and cancel the main campus graduation.

Shafik is one of several university presidents to step down after tension on campus from the Gaza war. Harvard President Claudine Gay and the University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill came under public fire for failing to condemn the rising anti-Semitism on campus from pro-Palestinian demonstrators protesting Israel’s war on Hamas. Both Gay and Magill stepped down from their positions soon after their testimony in December. Shafik reportedly declined to testify in December, citing a scheduling conflict. She and other leaders from Columbia did testify before a House committee later in April.

What has been  her critics' reaction to her  leaving? Speaker of the House Mike Johnson welcomed her resignation, recalling a moment in April when he stood in her office and told her to resign.  Columbia University became the center of the virulent anti-Semitism that plagued  many American university campuses, because of her refusals to protect Jewish students, he said. 

Did she have another job lined up? Shafik has taken an offer from the UK’s Foreign Secretary to chair a review of the government’s approach to international development and how to improve it. The school has about two and a half weeks before classes start back up on September 3. Katrina Armstrong, CEO of Columbia’s Irving Medical Center, will serve as interim president, the school confirmed on Wednesday. Armstrong said that her appointment came at a pivotal moment for Columbia after a year of trials for the community. Columbia should neither understate the significance of those trials nor allow them to define itself, she added.

Dig deeper: Read my report from earlier this year about pro-Palestinian campus protests turning violent.