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Columbia President Minouche Shafik resigns amid campus turmoil over war in Gaza

Katrina Armstrong, chief executive officer of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will serve as the interim president.

By Gabriella Gregor Splaver / Senior Staff Photographer
Shafik is the third Ivy League president to resign from the position in relation to campus tensions over the war in Gaza.
By Sarah Huddleston and Shea Vance • August 15, 2024 at 12:05 AM

Updated on Aug. 15 at 11:16 a.m.

University President Minouche Shafik resigned from her post on Wednesday, she wrote in an email to the Columbia community. The announcement comes only weeks before the beginning of the 2024-25 academic year and marks the end of a tumultuous year in the position.

During her tenure as Columbia’s 20th president, Shafik faced fierce national scrutiny for her administration’s handling of pro-Palestinian student protests, academic freedom, and on-campus antisemitism. She is the third Ivy League president to resign in relation to campus tensions over the war in Gaza following University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill and Harvard University’s Claudine Gay.

Shafik, Columbia’s first woman president and first president of color, served in the presidency for 13 months and 13 days, the shortest tenure in Columbia’s history since 1801.

“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.”

Katrina Armstrong, chief executive officer of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will serve as the interim president, according to an email from David Greenwald, Law ’83, and Claire Shipman, CC ’86, SIPA ’94, co-chairs of the board of trustees.

“As I step into this role, I am acutely aware of the trials the University has faced over the past year,” Armstrong wrote in an email to the Columbia community shortly after Shafik’s announcement. “We should neither understate their significance, nor allow them to define who we are and what we will become.”

Shafik wrote that she is “committed to working with the Interim President to ensure an orderly transition.”

“I also want to pay tribute to the deans, the University Leadership Team, and the staff of the President’s Office with whom I have worked so closely this last year; they have and will continue to do an extraordinary job for our students, faculty, researchers, staff, and community,” she wrote.


In Shipman and Greenwald’s email, in which they “regretfully” accepted Shafik’s resignation, the co-chairs commended Shafik for having “contributed so much to the Columbia community in an extraordinarily challenging time” and for having been a “wonderful colleague and friend.”

“While we are disappointed to see her leave us, we understand and respect her decision,” Shipman and Greenwald wrote.

Shafik wrote that she has been asked by the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom to chair “a review of the government’s approach to international development and how to improve capability.” With the move, Shafik will return to the United Kingdom, where she has spent the majority of her career.

She noted that the resignation will allow her to “return to the House of Lords to reengage with the important legislative agenda put forth by the new UK government.” Shafik is a baroness and has been a member of the House of Lords since 2020.

“My whole professional life has been devoted to public service and my time at Columbia has been an important part of that commitment,” Shafik wrote. “I am very pleased and appreciative that this will afford me the opportunity to return to work on fighting global poverty and promoting sustainable development, areas of lifelong interest to me.”

Eliana Johnson, the editor in chief of the Washington Free Beacon, broke the news of Shafik’s resignation in a post on X.

Columbia was the site of the most prominent pro-Palestinian protests of the spring semester. Tensions between student protesters and the administration reached a breaking point in April, when dozens of protesters began occupying South Lawn hours before Shafik testified in front of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

The next day, Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to sweep the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” leading to the arrest of over 100 protesters and generating immediate backlash from local politicians and community members. Encampments sprung up at universities across the nation and world in solidarity with Gaza and Columbia protesters.

Later that month, Shafik again authorized the NYPD to sweep campus on April 30 for the second time after dozens of students occupied Hamilton Hall in the most intense protest escalation of the school year. Police arrested over 100 protesters, threw stun grenades, and used an electric saw to enter the building, which had been barricaded with tables, chairs, and zipties.


Columbia’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine wrote in a Wednesday evening post on X that “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.”

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

The Columbia chapter of Jewish Voice For Peace, a pro-Palestinian student organization that co-organized campus demonstrations with SJP until both groups were suspended in November 2023, wrote on X that “The students of Columbia will never forget the sheer violence unleashed upon us by Minouche Shafik, and we will not be placated by her removal as the university’s repression of the pro-Palestinian student movement continues.”

Shafik has faced repeated calls to resign from members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, including committee chair Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), as well as high-ranking politicians such as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

Shafik testified in front of the committee on April 17, alongside Greenwald, Shipman, and Task Force on Antisemitism co-chair David Schizer. The committee grilled Shafik on the the safety of Jewish students on campus and what actions Columbia had taken to discipline pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Stefanik applauded the resignation in a Wednesday evening post on X, writing “THREE DOWN, so many to go.”

“As I have said consistently since her catastrophic testimony at the Education and Workforce Committee hearing, Columbia University’s President Minouche Shafik’s failed presidency was untenable and that is was only a matter of time before her forced resignation,” Stefanik wrote. “After failing to protect Jewish students and negotiating with pro Hamas terrorists, this forced resignation is long overdue.”

The committee launched a monthslong investigation into the University’s handling of on-campus antisemitism in February and most recently threatened to subpoena Columbia if it did not turn over “priority items” in its investigation by Aug. 8.


The Faculty of Arts and Sciences passed a vote of no confidence in Shafik on May 16, after the Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors brought forth a motion expressing concern with the state of shared governance and academic freedom. The University Senate stopped short of calling on Shafik to resign in late April, instead passing resolutions expressing concerns with administrative decision-making and disciplinary processes.

Shafik’s resignation comes just days after three Columbia College deans resigned after being placed on leave in late June for controversial text messages sent during a May panel on Jewish life. Foxx had criticized the University’s response to the messages, calling for the removal of the four involved deans—Columbia College Dean Josef Sorett, former Columbia College Vice Dean and Chief Administrative Officer Susan Chang-Kim, former Dean of Undergraduate Student Life Cristen Kromm, and former Associate Dean for Student and Family Support Matthew Patashnick. Sorett is the only involved dean who did not resign.

In her Wednesday email, Shafik wrote that she has “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,” Shafik wrote. “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.”

University News Editor Sarah Huddleston can be contacted at sarah.huddleston@columbiaspectator.com. Follow Spectator on X @ColumbiaSpec.

University News Editor Shea Vance can be contacted at shea.vance@columbiaspectator.com. Follow her on X @SheaVance22.

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