Columbia University President Steps Down Amid Turmoil Caused by Anti-Israel Protests on Campus – One America News Network
OAN Staff James Meyers
9:29 AM – Thursday, August 15, 2024
The controversial president of Columbia University, Minouche Safik, has resigned effective immediately.
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Shafik announced her decision Wednesday in a letter addressed to the Columbia community after she faced multiple calls to step down from her position over her stance on the anti-Israel protests and encampments that ravaged Columbia’s campus in the spring.
The chaos on campus resulted in classes being canceled as well as the school’s main commencement ceremony in May.
“I write with sadness to tell you that I am stepping down as president of Columbia University effective August 14, 2024. I have had the honor and privilege to lead this incredible institution, and I believe that—working together—we have made progress in a number of important areas. However, it has also been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community,” she wrote.
“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community. 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 am making this announcement now so that new leadership can be in place before the new term begins.”
With the resignation, the Board of Trustees announced Katrina Armstrong, chief executive officer of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will serve as the interim president.
“During my inauguration, I spoke of Columbia as an exemplar of a great 21st century university committed to educating leaders and citizens, generating knowledge and ideas to solve problems, and engaging at the local and global level to deliver real impact in improving people’s lives,” Shafik said. “As president, I have been proud to witness Columbia making so many contributions to delivering that vital mission. I also spoke about the values and principles which are dear to me and, I know, to the Columbia community as well: academic freedom and free speech; openness to ideas; and zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind—including gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or ethnicity. This mission, and the values and principles underpinning it, constitute our North Star. Even as tension, division, and politicization have disrupted our campus over the last year, our core mission and values endure and will continue to guide us in meeting the challenges ahead.”
“I have tried to navigate a path that upholds academic principles and treats everyone with fairness and compassion. 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. As President Lincoln said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’—we must do all we can to resist the forces of polarization in our community. I remain optimistic that differences can be overcome through the honest exchange of views, truly listening, and—always—by treating each other with dignity and respect. Again, Columbia’s core mission to create and acquire knowledge, with our values as foundation, will lead us there,” she added.
However, the community is not convinced the new change in leadership will help stop last year’s madness from happening again in the near future.
“University leadership has been promising that combating antisemitism is a priority, but many students are arriving in just a few weeks, and I don’t have confidence that the campus situation this fall is going to look any different than it did in the spring,” Matthew Waxman, a law professor and member of the school’s task force on anti-Semitism, told the New York Post.
The former university president had been accused by Jewish students of allowing anti-Israel protesters to run loose on her campus with zero discipline or intervention.
Meanwhile, in April, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) demanded that Shafik resign if she couldn’t stand up to the agitators, calling her leadership “very weak” and “inept.”
“As a result of President Shafik’s refusal to protect Jewish students and maintain order on campus, Columbia University became the epicenter for virulent antisemitism that has plagued many American university campuses since Hamas’ barbaric attack on Israel last fall,” Johnson said Wednesday in response to her resignation, calling it “long overdue.”
“We hope that President Shafik’s resignation serves as an example to university administrators across the country that tolerating or protecting anti-Semites is unacceptable and will have consequences,” he said.
Additionally, Shafik testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in April about allegations of anti-Semitism on campus. Her testimony was portrayed as dismissive to the concerns of Jewish students, who accused her of looking the other way to the anti-Jewish sentiment at Columbia, while refusing to interact with their student groups.
“During Shafik’s presidency, a disturbing wave of antisemitic harassment, discrimination, and disorder engulfed Columbia university’s campus. Jewish students and faculty have been mocked, harassed, and assaulted simply for their identity. Every student has the right to a safe learning environment. Period. Yet, flagrant violations of the law and the university rules went unpunished,” committee chair Rep. Virginia Foxx, (R-N.C.) said Wednesday.
“Colombia’s next leader must take bold action to address the pervasive antisemitism, support for terrorism, and contempt for the university’s rules that have been allowed to flourish on its campus,” she added.
Shafik’s resignation comes just a week after three university deans resigned from Columbia following the exposure of their “very troubling” text chain that showed no remorse for any of the Jewish students’ concerns on campus.
Furthermore, this also comes after University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned December 9, 2023, followed by Harvard University President Claudine Gay, who stepped down on January 2, 2024.
Those resignations by the former university president’s were tied to their stances on the Israel-Hamas war as well.
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