Embattled Columbia president Minouche Shafik resigns due to ‘period of turmoil’ after anti-Israel student protests

Embattled Columbia University president Minouche Shafik suddenly resigned Wednesday and is escaping back to her home country after leading the elite institution for less than a year that was marked by constant — and sometimes destructive — anti-Israel protests.

Shafik announced she would be “stepping down” from the Ivy League in a letter to the student body and blamed the “period of turmoil” for her shocking departure.

“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” Shafik wrote.

“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.

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

In her letter, the scholar revealed she is leaving the prestigious school to return to the United Kingdom — where she spent most of her career — for a gig with its foreign secretary as a chair tasked with reviewing the government’s approach to international development.

“I have 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,” she wrote.

Dr. Katrina Armstrong, the CEO of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will be stepping in as interim president, the school announced.

In her own letter to the student body, Armstrong accepted the job with a slight nod to the year-long debacle that splashed Columbia across national headlines.

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“As I step into this role, I am acutely aware of the trials the University has faced over the past year. We should neither understate their significance nor allow them to define who we are and what we will become,” Armstrong wrote.

The community, however, is not convinced the change in leadership will have any effect on stopping last year’s chaos from trickling into the fall semester.

“University leadership has been promising that combating antisemitism is a priority, but many students are arriving in just a few weeks, and I don’t have confidence that the campus situation this fall is going to look any different than it did in the spring,” Matthew Waxman, a law professor and member of the school’s task force on antisemitism, told The Post.

Waxman was shocked by the resignation and said it was too soon to tell whether it was the right move for the school. The bigger question, he continued, is whether Columbia is going to crack down on new rules aimed at mitigating antisemitism.

“We’re going to have a big test in just a few weeks,” he said.

“And if they’re not enforced, then we’ll know that the university just isn’t serious.”

Students expressed mixed emotions after learning the news outside the Morningside Heights campus Wednesday night.

A 28-year-old junior studying human rights feared that the leadership upheaval so close to the start of the new school year would only add to the turmoil students, faculty and staff have faced amid protests and arrests over the last year.

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“I just found out an hour ago. It’s very fresh,” said the student who asked not to be named. “We have two and a half weeks until school starts, and I think it’s going to be a very tumultuous time. I think this year is gonna be twofold when it comes to protests.”

A Barnard junior who also refused to give her name for fear of repercussions said she was shocked — and relieved — to learn Shafik resigned, but similarly worried that the president switch-up happened just before classes began.

“So close to the beginning of the school year, it feels a little daunting,” she said.

“There are going to be a lot of new students that are going to be scared,” she added. “And I am hopeful that they will be able to experience the community separate from the discourse they chose or chose not to participate in.”

The junior said she’s hopeful a new president will guide the university better than Shafik did.

“I would not say that I’m happy about it but I would say that I’m relieved that there is going to be a spot for new leadership,” the student told The Post. “For her to resign is a symbol for me of hope for a better way to go about things.

“I have seen others — no matter who you are — been affected by this conflict overseas. And it’s heartbreaking. And I have cried over it — many times. And those tears are shed over everybody who is hurting right now,” she added.

“And I think that President Shafik resigning, honestly, is a step in the right direction.“

Shafik had been facing mounting calls to resign for months over her handling of the protests, which broke out following Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel.

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She was accused of “gross negligence” while testifying before Congress after refusing to say whether the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” should be considered antisemitic.

Critics claimed Shafik was not sufficiently cracking down on campus protests until the tent encampments took over the Ivy League school’s lawn in the weeks leading up to graduation.

“I’m a member of this community, and it’s heartbreaking on all sides. It has not only affected everyone that is involved in the conflict but it has affected everyone on campus… it disrupted learning,” the Barnard junior said.

Hundreds of students were arrested on trespassing charges for refusing to pack up, but the demonstrations escalated when a destructive mob illegally took over the Hamilton Hall academic building in April .

Shafik’s resignation comes just one week after three university deans resigned from Columbia following the exposure of their “very troubling” text chain that disparaged Israeli and Jewish students’ fears of rising anti-Semitism on campus.

Susan Chang-Kim, Matthew Patashnick and Cristen Kromm messaged vomit emojis and accused Jewish students of asserting “privilege” during a panel discussion the month prior about antisemitism on campus stoked by Israel’s war against Hamas.

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