Columbia Head Shafik’s Shock Exit Flashes Warning of More Campus Tumult

Katia Porzecanski
·7-min read

(Bloomberg) -- Minouche Shafik knew there was no way she could win.

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So the president of Columbia University, who drew criticism from both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian factions for her handling of campus protests over the war in Gaza earlier this year, had to walk away.

“It has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community,” she acknowledged in her statement announcing her resignation from the school on Wednesday after just 13 months in the role. Shafik, 62, is the third Ivy League president who has stepped down over turmoil on campus and accusations of antisemitism since Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

With the new school year set to start on Sept. 3, Shafik’s shock resignation signals that the summer break from convulsions that have upended campus life is likely temporary. Already, student groups are preparing to renew protests against Israel as the country continues its assault in Gaza and pursues its mission to destroy Hamas, a militant group designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union.

Schools have installed new rules around protests and Columbia is exploring ways to beef up security. Last week it cut off outsiders’ access to its campus, citing “reports of potential disruptions.”

The university senate, composed of some faculty members, students and administrators, has yet to establish conduct guidelines for when the school resumes in the fall. That has led to growing frustration among other faculty and students as well as trustees, according to people familiar with the matter.

Additionally, protesters as well as Jewish students say they’re unsure about the disciplinary status of those who violated school rules, and whether they would be allowed back on campus.

Regardless, student groups vow to keep going.

Mahmoud Khalil, a negotiator for Columbia’s pro-Palestinian protest group, told The Hill this month that activism will continue in the fall not only through demonstrations and encampments but by “any available means necessary to push Columbia to divest from Israel.”

He said that encampments, which enveloped Columbia’s West Lawn for several weeks in April and inspired solidarity encampments at colleges across the country, are “the new base for us,” and that “the university should think really, really, really hard about meeting our demands.”

Those demands include transparency into Columbia’s endowment and divestment from companies with ties to Israel, severing the school’s relationship with Israeli academic institutions, defunding public safety and reparations for the indigenous people of New York.

The protesters say they are being driven to action by Palestinian deaths in Gaza as a result of Israel’s military assault in the seaside enclave. The conflict erupted after Hamas fighters attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people. Israel’s retaliatory response has killed about 40,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.

The protest groups have complained about a lack of dialogue with Shafik and criticized her decision to bring in the New York Police Department on multiple occasions, including after dozens of students and outsiders barricaded themselves inside the Hamilton Hall building on campus.

“After months of chanting ‘Minouche Shafik you can’t hide’ she finally got the memo,” Columbia’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine posted to social media. “To be clear, any future president who does not pay heed to the Columbia student body’s overwhelming demand for divestment will end up exactly as President Shafik did.”

She’s being replaced on an interim basis by Katrina Armstrong, chief executive officer of Columbia University Irving Medical Center. It means that Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University are all now being led by medical professionals.

It’s not clear exactly what prompted Shafik to quit this week and she didn’t immediately return calls for comment. The Egypt-born economist and former president of the London School of Economics said in her statement that she used the summer to “reflect” and realized that her exit would “best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.”

She added that she’s been asked by the UK’s Foreign Secretary to chair a review of the government’s approach to international development.

Campus Controversy

Even with most students absent from Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus, controversy continues to swirl around the institution.

Protesters last week vandalized the Brooklyn home of Cas Holloway, Columbia’s chief operating officer, with red paint and crickets. NBC New York reported that the vandals left a poster outside Holloway’s home containing an image of a noose, as well as a letter accusing Holloway of leaving a “trail of violence and destruction.”

Three deans quit this month after Shafik and the university “permanently removed” them from their positions in July after they engaged in “very troubling” text messages during a reunion event about Jewish life on campus.

Records of the text messages later released by the House Education and the Workforce Committee showed the administrators mocked some of the panelists and their concerns, with one saying “hard to hear the woe is me, we need to huddle at the Kraft center,” — a reference to the school’s Hillel. The content fueled concern among some Jewish students that Columbia was merely paying lip service to their complaints about antisemitism.

Jessica Schwalb, a rising senior and student journalist, said Shafik “wanted to play both sides so much that she ended up angering both sides.”

Instead, Shafik “should’ve cared less about who she was angering and more about prioritizing maintaining order on campus,” Schwalb said. She says she is still waiting to hear from the school about a complaint she filed in April after she was surrounded by protesters.

The school’s Task Force on Antisemitism told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that they documented hundreds of cases of Jewish students feeling discrimination, and found several instances where professors encouraged students to participate in pro-Palestinian protests or the encampment for extra credit.

“The concept of Zionism has become unacceptable in some circles at Columbia,” Columbia Professor Nicholas Lemann told Haaretz. “People are asked to promise that they’re not Zionist.”

The events of the past year have created significant rifts with prominent donors, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who backed the school’s Hillel center, and hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman. Both said they would suspend their giving to the school.

Cooperman said he would have preferred for Shafik to have taken action on campus rather than quit.

“The right thing is to say there is no room for hate speech of any kind against any group on campus. No exceptions,” he told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

For Shafik, the criticism has come from all angles. She’s faced scrutiny from Congress over the behavior and commentary by anti-Israel professors, and drawn the ire of faculty who said she suppressed free speech and violated student rights, and was wrong to call the cops on protesters. In May, the faculty of Arts and Sciences passed a motion of no confidence in the leader.

The board gave Shafik its backing and reiterated its support in their statement Wednesday.

“While we are disappointed to see her leave us, we understand and respect her decision,” said the co-chairs, David Greenwald and Claire Shipman.

It’s now up to Armstrong to guide the institution and balance the competing interests of students, faculty and alumni.

“As I step into this role, I am acutely aware of the trials the University has faced over the past year,” she said. “We should neither understate their significance, nor allow them to define who we are and what we will become.”

--With assistance from Laura Nahmias and Janet Lorin.

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