The president of Columbia University in New York, Minush Shafik, has announced that she is resigning, citing a period of crisis in the spring when the New York university's campus was the epicenter of student demonstrations over the war in Gaza and controversy over the rise of anti-Semitism.
The Egyptian-American economist announced her resignation last night in an email to the faculty and student community, effective immediately.
The announcement came as a surprise given that she avoided a wave of resignations from colleagues at other universities over pro-Palestinian protests, such as University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay.
She wrote in an email that France Press had access to that she was announcing the decision now so that the new administration could be appointed before the start of the new semester on September 3.
"It was a period of crisis in which it was difficult to overcome different opinions within our community," Šafik wrote.
She warned of threats, insults and even mistreatment of her by colleagues and students and said that her resignation allows Colombia to better face challenges in the future.
"We all need to do what we can to resist the forces of polarization," she said.
The university she headed since July 2023 was among the leaders of the mobilization at the beginning of the war that Israel is waging against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response to the Palestinian movement's bloody attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
In April of this year, Columbia University began demonstrations and protests that spread to universities across the US. They recalled the movement against the war in Vietnam in 1968.
At the invitation of then-President Shafik, New York police forcefully removed dozens of activists and students on April 30, and the university's traditional large graduation ceremony was canceled.
In early July, three Columbia deans were removed over text messages during a public forum in May, which were reported by conservative media and revealed anti-Semitic bias, according to a statement from the university's presidency.
Columbia University announced before the start of university classes that there will be limited public access to the huge campus located in the northern part of Manhattan.
The faculty announced that Katrina Armstrong, director of Columbia University's Irving Medical Center, will serve as the university's president.
A prestigious private university with a huge budget funded by donors and large companies, some of which are linked to Israel, has tens of thousands of students and professors.
The presidency has been accused of not cracking down hard enough on statements or actions directed at Jewish students, but also of being too harsh on small pro-Palestinian groups.
Shafik was questioned before the US Congress this winter, along with other university presidents, after Republicans accused them of not being tough enough on the rise of anti-Semitism at universities.
The leader of the Republican majority in the lower house of the US Congress, Mike Johnson, came to Colombia in the midst of the biggest crisis to condemn the "terrorism of the protesters", and last night he welcomed President Shafik's decision to resign.
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