'Have decided that my moving on...': Columbia University president resigns over Gaza protests turmoil

Nearly four months after Columbia University was rocked by campus protests over Gaza war, institute’s president Minouche Shafik on Wednesday resigned from her position.

According to a BBC report, Katrina Armstrong, chief executive officer of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will serve as the interim president.

In an email to students and faculty on Wednesday, Shafik, who has now become the third president of an Ivy League university to resign over her handling of Gaza war protests, said that she has overseen a “period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community”.

“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” BBC quoted her as saying in the mail.

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“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 have tried to navigate a path that upholds academic principles and treats everyone with fairness and compassion,” she said, adding, “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.”

In April, Shafik allowed the New York Police Department to flood the campus, a controversial decision that resulted in the arrest of around 100 students who were occupying a university building.

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The incident was the first instance of mass arrests on Columbia’s campus since the Vietnam War protests over 50 years ago.

The decision also triggered widespread protests at other colleges throughout the US and Canada.

Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and Israel subsequently invaded into the Gaza, the US college campuses have become a focal point for protests related to the war.

Leaders from Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding these protests.

The presidents of Harvard and UPenn resigned over their mishandling of campus protests and their congressional testimony, which included their reluctance to assert that calls for the deaths of Jews might breach university policy.

In April, Shafik defended her institution’s measures against antisemitism before Congress, highlighting an increase in such hatred on campus and the college’s efforts to protect students.

Shafik resignation follows the departure of three Columbia University deans last week, who resigned after text messages revealed they had used “antisemitic tropes” while discussing Jewish students. These text exchanges were initially published by the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce in early July, BBC reported.

Shafik, a respected Egyptian-born economist with a background at the World Bank, IMF, and Bank of England, also previously served as president of the London School of Economics.

With inputs from agencies