After a brief and turbulent term that saw her under intense criticism for her handling of protests and school conflicts during the Israel-Hamas war, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced her resignation on Wednesday.
Shafik, an economist of Egyptian descent as well as the first woman to manage the Ivy League institution, announced her step back amid continuing student and staff resentment over the school’s violent evacuation of protestors from an encampment and a building they had taken over on the Upper Manhattan campus last spring.
“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” Shafik wrote in a statement explaining her departure. “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.”
“I have tried to navigate a path that upholds academic principles and treats everyone with fairness and compassion,” Shafik added. “It has been distressing—for the community, for me as president and on a personal level—to find myself, colleagues, and students the subject of threats and abuse. “
The co-chairs of the board of trustees said in a separate statement that Katrina Armstrong, the director of the university’s medical center, will take over as temporary president.
Shafik resigned after barely a year in office, following in the footsteps of the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, who were all subjected to harsh criticism after hearing Congressional allegations of antisemitism and harassment directed at Jewish students during the protests.
Prior to taking up his role as president of Columbia in July, Shafik had served as the director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her inauguration was disrupted by a stream of protestors wearing white coats, demonstrating against the university’s handling of Robert Hadden, a Columbia doctor who had molested hundreds of patients sexually.
