NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned Wednesday after a brief, turbulent tenure in which the prestigious New York university faced protests against the war between Israel and Hamas and criticism of the school’s handling of the conflict-related divisions.
The elite university in Upper Manhattan has been rocked by student protests this year, culminating in a police operation with zip ties and riot shields storming a building occupied by pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Similar protests have taken place on college campuses nationwide, many of which have resulted in violent clashes with police and thousands of arrests.
The announcement also comes just days after the school confirmed the resignations of three deans who officials said exchanged derogatory text messages during a campus discussion about Jewish life and anti-Semitism.
Shafik was also among the university leaders summoned to testify before Congress earlier this year. She was heavily criticized by Republicans who accused her of not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism on the Columbia University campus.
Shafik announced her resignation in an emailed letter to the university community just weeks before classes begin on Sept. 3. The university began restricting campus access to people with Columbia IDs and registered guests on Monday, saying it wanted to curb “potential disruption” ahead of the modern semester.
In her letter, Shafik announced “progress in a number of important areas,” but lamented that during her time in office, “it has been difficult to overcome differing views in our community.”
“This time has been very stressful for my family, as well as others in the community,” she wrote. “Over the summer, I was able to reflect and concluded that my departure at this point would best help Columbia meet the challenges ahead.”
Meanwhile, the Columbia University Board of Regents announced that Katrina Armstrong, CEO of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will serve as interim president.
Armstrong, who is also the university’s executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences, said she was “deeply honored” to lead the university at a “pivotal moment for Columbia.”
“Challenging times present both the opportunity and the responsibility for every group and every individual within a community to demonstrate serious leadership,” she wrote. “As I assume this role, I am acutely aware of the challenges the University has faced over the past year.”
During Shafik’s congressional testimony in mid-April, pro-Palestinian protesters first set up tent camps on the Columbia University campus. The next day, the university sent police to clear the tents, but the students returned, sparking a wave of similar protests on campuses across the country.
As the protest continued for weeks, the school became a lightning rod. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson showed up to denounce the camp, while Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came to support it.
Eventually, talks between the school and the protesters stalled, and when the school gave the activists a deadline to leave the building, another group occupied Hamilton Hall instead.
Even after the protests were resolved, the school decided to cancel its university-wide graduation ceremony and instead opt for a series of smaller, school-internal ceremonies.
Campus has been mostly serene this summer, but a conservative news outlet in June published images of alleged text messages exchanged among the administration during the May 31 panel discussion “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present and Future.”
The officers were removed from their posts. In a July 8 letter to the school community, Shafik said the messages were unprofessional and “touched on old anti-Semitic metaphors in a disturbing way.”
Shafik’s critics cheered the end of her tenure, one of the shortest in the school’s history.
Johnson, House Speaker, said her resignation was “long overdue” and should serve as a warning to other university administrations that “tolerating or protecting anti-Semites 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 had “finally understood” after months of protests. The campus branch of Jewish Voice for Peace wrote that it “will not be appeased by her dismissal as the university’s repression of the pro-Palestinian student movement continues.”
Other prominent Ivy League leaders have resigned in recent months, largely because of their response to violent protests on campus.
The president of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill, resigned in December after less than two years in office, citing pressure from donors and criticism of her testimony at a congressional hearing, where she was unable to comment, despite repeated questioning, on the fact that calls for genocide against Jews on campus violated the university’s code of conduct.
And in January, Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned amid allegations of plagiarism and similar criticism related to her testimony before Congress.
Shafik said she would return to the UK to lead a Foreign Office initiative to review the government’s approach to international development.
“I am very excited and grateful for this opportunity to once again work on combating global poverty and promoting sustainable development, areas that have interested me all my life,” she wrote.
Shafik was named president of the university last year, the first woman to hold the position, and joins several women who have recently been appointed to the leadership of Ivy League institutions.
The Egyptian-born economist previously headed the London School of Economics, but made a name for herself outside of academia in positions at the World Bank, the British Department for International Development, the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England.
When Shafik was appointed, Jonathan Lavine, chairman of the Columbia Board of Trustees, described her as a leader with “unwavering confidence in the critical role that higher education can and must play in solving the world’s most complex problems.”
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Associated Press reporter Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this story.
