Columbia University President Nemat (Minouche) Shafik.
| Photo Credit: AP

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned Wednesday (August 15, 2024) 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.

Explained | Why are students protesting across U.S. campuses?

Ms. 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.

Ms. Shafik, who was appointed to the role in January last year, announced her resignation in an emailed letter to the university community just weeks before the start of classes on September 3, 2024. The University on Monday (August 12, 2024) 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, Ms. 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 Ms. 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.

Also Read: After mass arrests at Columbia University, pro-Palestinian protests sweep U.S. college campuses

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.

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 Ms. Shafik saying in a July 8, 2024 letter to the school community that the messages were unprofessional and “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes.”

Ms. 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 antisemitism is unacceptable and will have consequences.”