Columbia University president Shafik resigns after Gaza protests

The president of New York's renowned Columbia University, Nemat ‘Minouche’ Shafik, resigned on Wednesday, effective immediately, following persistent criticism of her handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus.

In a letter to the university community, Shafik said the Ivy League school had made "progress in a number of important areas" during her one-year term at the school, but "this period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community."

Shafik wrote that she decided to resign after thinking about the situation over the summer.

Katrina Armstrong, the chief executive of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, replaced Shafik as interim president, the university's board of trustees announced.

There had been massive pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University in the spring. There was a protest camp on campus, and a building was also temporarily occupied and damaged. Shafik was criticized for giving the protests too much freedom and for not taking sufficient action against anti-Semitism on campus. The pro-Palestinian side, in turn, criticized her for ultimately calling the police to crack down on the protests. There were numerous arrests.

Protests at many US universities across the country since the Gaza war started in October 2023 reflect the division in US society over the Middle East conflict.

Academic institutions have endeavoured to maintain a balance between freedom of expression and discrimination, the right to protest and the security needs of its Jewish students and faculty.

The heads of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resigned after a brutal hearing in Congress in December 2023 over the campus protests.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, both Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives accused the university leaders of avoiding questions about campus anti-Semitism.