Why did Shafik step down now?
When Columbia College President Minouche Shafik resigned abruptly on Wednesday, she grew to become the third campus chief since December to step down amid Congressional stress over how they dealt with sprawling pupil protests tied to the warfare between Israel and Hamas.
However not like her friends, Liz Magill of the College of Pennsylvania and Harvard’s Claudine Homosexual, who stepped down quickly after their extensively criticized efficiency earlier than lawmakers final 12 months, Shafik appeared to be within the clear. Following her personal grueling inquisition by the Home Schooling and Workforce Committee in April, she weathered the wrath of lawmakers, college students, school and alumni, however maintained the help of Columbia’s board of trustees.
So why did she bow out now, simply weeks earlier than the beginning of the autumn semester and through a interval of relative calm on campus? The transfer appeared extra possible in a turbulent spring semester, when college students arrange an encampment on campus and occupied an administrative constructing, leading to dozens of arrests, and sharp scrutiny of Shafik.
Up to now, Columbia directors have had little to say concerning the timing of her exit. Shafik, in her resignation letter, touched frivolously on the matter: “Over the summer time, I’ve been capable of replicate and have determined that my shifting on at this level would greatest allow Columbia to traverse the challenges forward. I’m making this announcement now in order that new management will be in place earlier than the brand new time period begins,” she wrote.
Columbia College didn’t reply to questions on Shafik’s resignation.
Now Shafik plans to work with the UK’s International Secretary in a world improvement function, an space the place she has expertise, and a job she arrange earlier than asserting her departure. Shafik, who holds British, American and Egyptian citizenship, was already a member of the U.Okay. Home of Lords. However it isn’t clear when talks started for her return to London; the International Secretary’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark from Inside Greater Ed.
Terrence Casey, a professor of political science at Indiana’s Rose-Hulman Institute of Expertise, wrote by e-mail that given Shafik’s “life peer” appointment to Parliament’s higher home in 2020, “there actually is not any vetting course of for Dr. Shafik” to simply accept a task within the U.Okay.
Janet Laible, a professor of political science at Lehigh College in Pennsylvania, wrote by e-mail “that for the reason that present [U.K.] authorities was solely appointed after successful elections on July 4, there wouldn’t have been any formal communication together with her earlier than that.” Nonetheless, Laible added, “that’s not to say that there was no *casual* communication” between Shafik and the U.Okay. authorities.
When Shafik stepped down, Dr. Katrina Armstrong was introduced as interim on the identical evening. A Columbia administrator and professor, Armstrong will likely be on the helm when the autumn semester begins in early September—and college students have made it clear that protests are more likely to resume.
College students for Justice in Palestine, a bunch energetic in campus protests, has warned that any chief who spurns their calls for to divest from Israel and people profiting off the warfare “will find yourself precisely as President Shafik did.”
Shafik angered protesters by failing to behave on their divestment calls for, in addition to by permitting police on campus to clear Hamilton Corridor, the constructing they occupied, and arrest these inside. School have likewise expressed outrage over each Shafik’s dealing with of the occupation and her efficiency on Capitol Hill, the place many imagine she didn’t defend professors focused by Congress.
“President Minouche Shafik threw me below the bus when she testified earlier than Congress, however I’m nonetheless an worker of Columbia College, she’s not. Seems that capitulating to the bullies didn’t work out nicely for her. It by no means does,” Columbia school member Katherine Franke wrote on X, referring to Shafik’s acquiescence to Congressional criticism.
Congressional Republicans additionally blasted Shafik for not cracking down on protesters sooner. On Wednesday evening, A number of GOP critics took a victory lap as information of Shafik’s resignation unfold.
Within the speedy aftermath of her resignation, free speech advocacy organizations and the American Affiliation of College Professors (AAUP) condemned Shafik’s management at Columbia.
“By suppressing educational freedom and the free speech rights of scholars and college and alluring punitive self-discipline and a brutal police crackdown on pupil protests at Columbia, Shafik failed to guard primary tenets of upper training and capitulated to a brand new McCarthyist witch hunt towards the Academy,” AAUP President Todd Wolfson stated Thursday. “That is her legacy.”
How We Bought Right here
Shafik’s resignation was preceded by Liz Magill stepping down as president of Penn in December and Claudine Homosexual resigning the highest job at Harvard in January. Each succumbed to public anger over their disastrous efficiency on the first Congressional listening to on campus antisemitism, once they and Massachusetts Institute of Expertise President Sally Kornbluth gave legalistic and equivocating solutions to a hypothetical query about requires the genocide of Jews on campus. Solely Kornbluth, who’s Jewish, managed to carry onto her job at MIT.
Shafik had been requested to look earlier than Congress at that listening to in December, however was unable to take action as a result of she was touring abroad.
As a substitute, Shafik obtained a listening to of her personal in April. Flanked by members of Columbia’s Board of Trustees and co-chair of the college’s antisemitism job power, Shafik largely prevented the missteps of her predecessors within the sizzling seat. When requested the identical query that stymied her friends—whether or not calling for the genocide of Jewish folks would violate college insurance policies—Shafik said clearly that it might at Columbia.
However whilst she briefly escaped the fury of Congress, Shafik outraged many Columbia school members who believed she threw them below the bus. And as she was testifying, pro-Palestinian protesters arrange an encampment on Columbia’s campus, which might quickly spark a wave of comparable demonstrations at schools coast to coast.
Congress held a third listening to on campus antisemitism in Could, that includes the presidents of Northwestern College, Rutgers College and the College of California at Los Angeles. The place are they now? Right here’s a take a look at the opposite six presidents who spoke to Congress, and what occurred afterward.
Liz Magill
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The Penn president was the primary to go. Already below hearth for her preliminary statements on the Israel-Hamas warfare—and for permitting a Palestinian literary pageant to proceed on campus—she apologized and sought to make clear her remarks from the Congressional listening to. However the harm was carried out; Magill resigned in December amid withering criticism from Congressional Republicans and donors, who threatened to shut their checkbooks ought to she stay at Penn. She had been within the function for a bit greater than a 12 months.
Penn Board of Trustees chair Scott Bok additionally stepped down following Magill’s resignation, issuing a warning about permitting donors to wield an excessive amount of affect.
Claudine Homosexual
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Harvard’s first Black president survived the Congressional listening to solely to be felled by one other scandal.
Like Magill, she apologized for her missteps earlier than Congress and appeared poised to maintain her job till accusations of plagiarism immediately emerged in December. Harvard initially batted away allegations trafficked by conservative activists however the clamor quickly grew to become too loud to disregard; Homosexual submitted corrections and acknowledged errors.
Nevertheless it didn’t placate the critics, and he or she resigned in January. Afterward, the former Harvard president defended herself, acknowledging she had made some errors however arguing that the hassle to oust her was racially motivated.
Homosexual, who has retained a tenured school function, was president of Harvard for lower than a 12 months.
Sally Kornbluth
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Of the primary three presidents to talk to Congress, Kornbluth emerged comparatively unscathed.
Like her friends, Kornbluth apologized for her missteps within the December listening to. That apology, and a subsequent plan to enhance the campus local weather by rethinking pupil disciplinary processes, free expression insurance policies, and variety, fairness and inclusion packages—in addition to by launching quality-of-life surveys for college students and workers—appeared to fulfill her critics.
On the time of the listening to, Kornbluth, too, was comparatively new to the job, with lower than a 12 months below her belt as MIT’s president. She is exclusive, nonetheless, in retaining her place regardless of the fallout.
Gene Block
College of California at Los Angeles
When the UCLA chancellor spoke to Congress on the third antisemitism listening to in Could, he was already on the way in which out, having introduced final August his intent to retire on the finish of the educational 12 months. Block, who’s Jewish, led UCLA for almost 20 years. However his final 12 months within the job was marred by violence at campus protests.
Block confronted criticism from Congress for permitting a big pro-Palestinian encampment to develop on the UCLA campus, a website that later got here below assault from pro-Israel counter demonstrators. Violent clashes erupted and movies of pro-Palestinian protesters blocking Jewish college students from accessing elements of campus went viral, prompting Congress to haul Block in for questioning.
Flanked by the presidents of Northwestern and Rutgers, the long-time UCLA chief and his friends stood their floor on the listening to, pushing again at instances in response to pointed questions.
Block stepped down final month as deliberate.
Michael Schill
Congressional Republicans took purpose at Northwestern’s president through the Could listening to—and missed.
Schill was a frequent goal at that listening to, with Republicans urgent him about placing a cope with protesters to take down an encampment in alternate for extra transparency on investments, scholarships for Palestinian undergraduates and different concessions. Additionally they took difficulty with the speech and conduct of some Northwestern school members, and the college’s enterprise dealings with Qatar.
However Schill pushed again, rejecting the premise of a number of questions and refusing to debate particular person school members or to touch upon pupil speech.
Schill, who has led Northwestern since fall 2022, stays in his function as president.
Jonathan Holloway
Recent off of an settlement with campus protesters to take away an encampment in alternate for a dialogue about college funding insurance policies and different concessions, the Rutgers president, who has stated he opposes divestment, was additionally referred to as earlier than Congress in Could.
Republicans accused each Schill and Holloway of constructing “surprising concessions to the illegal antisemitic encampments on their campuses” once they first referred to as the presidents in to testify. However on the listening to, Holloway rejected the notion he made concessions to a mob, as Congress alleged, emphasizing that he was talking together with his college students and in search of to reduce disruption.
He was evasive at instances, prompting Republican consultant Bob Good to ask pointedly: “Are you ready to reply any questions? Do you could have an opinion on something?”
Regardless of that criticism, Holloway managed to keep away from the most important missteps and viral moments that upended different presidents.
Holloway, who has led the college since 2020, stays president of Rutgers.
