Columbia University president resigns months after Israel-Hamas war protests roiled campus

The president of Columbia University announced her resignation Wednesday after a little more than a year on the job, following months of criticism over protests on the Manhattan campus over the war in Gaza.

Nemat “Minouche” Shafik had been criticized by anti-war protesters as well as by House Republicans in Congress, but for different reasons.

In a letter to the Columbia community, Shafik said while she was president “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 said. This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community.

Shafik, an economist who became president of the Ivy League school in July 2023, asked the New York City Police Department twice to clear encampments set up by protesters in what demonstrators said was an act of solidarity with Palestinians.

After the first encampment on the Manhattan campus was cleared a second one grew. Protesters took control of Hamilton Hall and the NYPD cleared it and the encampment at the request of the university.

In April, Shafik appeared before a House committee where she faced questions about her handling of antisemitism on campus.

The resignation is effective Wednesday, Shafik wrote in the letter.

“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,” Shafik wrote. “I am making this announcement now so that new leadership can be in place before the new term begins.”

Columbia’s Board of Trustees said in a statement that it “regretfully accepts Minouche Shafik’s decision to step down as president of the University.”

Katrina Armstrong was named interim president. She is CEO of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and leads Columbia’s health and biomedical sciences campus.

“With optimism and resolve, let us move forward together, embracing the opportunity to renew our vision and strengthen our community,” Armstrong wrote in a letter about being named interim president.

The student protest group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine on X welcomed the resignation. It had called on Shafik to resign.

“After months of chanting “Minouche Shafik you can’t hide” she finally got the memo,” the group said. “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.”