Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has resigned after months of criticism over his response to campus protests against the Gaza war.
“This period has placed a great strain on my family, as well as others in our community,” Shafik wrote in an email to faculty, staff and students on Wednesday. “It has also been a tumultuous period with difficult differences of opinion across our community.”
She added: “I have reflected on this over the summer and have decided that my transition in this regard is in Columbia’s best interest to navigate the challenges ahead.”
Her resignation, effective immediately, was unexpected with just weeks to go before the university’s fall semester begins and comes on the heels of the resignations of two other Ivy League presidents in the past year.
Shortly after the news came reports of pro-Palestinian protesters. celebrate Near the university, members of the Columbia community began appearing on X. expressed support Because of a change in leadership.
Shafik said in an email that as British foreign secretary he will take on the role of “leading a review of the government’s approach to international development.”
“While we are disappointed to see her step down, we understand and respect her decision,” David Greenwald and Claire Shipman, co-chairs of the Columbia University Board of Trustees, wrote in a separate letter to Columbia officials. They also announced that Katrina Armstrong, CEO of Columbia Irving Medical Center, would serve as interim president.
“In assuming this role, I am acutely aware of the challenges the university has faced over the past year,” Armstrong wrote in a letter to university officials, “and we should not underestimate their importance, nor allow them to define who we are and what we become.”
Shafik, who will take office in July 2023 and become the first woman to become president of New York City’s prestigious university, appeared before Congress in April during a highly publicized hearing about allegations of anti-Semitism on campus. Around the same time, her decision to call the NYPD to campus in response to student protests drew outrage from students and faculty.
“It is painful for our community, for me as chancellor, and personally for me to see myself, my colleagues and students being the subject of threats and abuse,” Shafiq said. “As President Lincoln said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand,’ and we must do all we can to resist the forces of division in our community.”
Columbia University is widely seen as a hub for student-led pro-Palestinian protests that have sparked similar demonstrations at dozens of universities across the United States and abroad.
