New York
CNN
—
When Minouche Shafik was introduced as Columbia College’s president final 12 months, she was referred to as the “perfect candidate” by the chair of Columbia’s Board of Trustees.
Now, a few of her personal college students and professors, in addition to the speaker of the Home of Representatives, are calling on her to resign.
Simply over 9 months into her tenure, Shafik — an Egyptian-born economist and former high-ranking official on the World Financial institution, Worldwide Financial Fund and Financial institution of England, and former president of the London College of Economics — is underneath strain for her dealing with of Columbia campus protests over the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
School directors have been underneath intense scrutiny within the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict. College of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill and Harvard College president Claudine Homosexual each stepped down within the wake of strain over their response to antisemitism on campus.
At Columbia, some college students, school and left-leaning lawmakers are enraged that Shafik approved the New York Police Division to close down scholar protests on campus which were urging the college to chop off its financial and tutorial ties to Israel. They are saying the crackdown on scholar protests, which resulted in more than 100 arrests, violated tutorial freedom. On the identical time, college students, spiritual teams and right-leaning lawmakers say the administration has did not cease antisemitism inside Columbia’s campus and at protests exterior its gates.
“Calling in police enforcement on nonviolent demonstrations of younger college students on campus is an escalatory, reckless, and harmful act,” Democratic Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez posted on X Tuesday. “It represents a heinous failure of management that places folks’s lives in danger. I condemn it within the strongest attainable phrases.”
The Republican Home speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson, referred to as on Shafik to resign throughout a tense press convention Wednesday at Columbia. “I’m right here at the moment, becoming a member of my colleagues and calling on President Shafik to resign if she can not instantly convey order to this chaos,” Johnson stated.
“These are extremely tough conditions for a college president, particularly somebody who shouldn’t be examined over time,” stated James Finkelstein, a professor emeritus of public coverage at George Mason College who research the choice and employment of college presidents.
“She’s at critical danger of having the ability to survive this,” Finkelstein added. “The probability of her protecting her job is at greatest 50-50.”
Columbia’s Board of Trustees is standing by Shafik, saying it “strongly helps” Shafik as she “steers the college by way of this terribly difficult time.”
“In the course of the search course of for this position, President Shafik informed us that she would all the time take a considerate strategy to resolving battle, balancing the disparate voices that make up a vibrant campus like Columbia’s, whereas taking a agency stance towards hatred, harassment, and discrimination,” the board stated in a press release Wednesday. “That’s precisely what she’s doing now.”
Shafik has now drawn comparisons to former Columbia president Grayson Kirk, who in 1968 referred to as in 1,000 cops in riot gear to quell college students protesting the Vietnam Struggle, Columbia’s position in navy analysis and its relationship to the Harlem group.
Kirk resigned later that 12 months.
Final week, Shafik approved the New York Police Division to brush the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on Columbia’s campus. Police arrested greater than 100 folks on suspicion of prison trespassing, and Columbia suspended college students taking part within the protest encampment.
“Columbia itself has its personal traditions and recollections of bringing police on campus,” Finkelstein stated. “You’ve gotten a traditionally activist school and scholar physique.”
Shafik’s choice to authorize the NYPD to arrest protestors “suggests to me being very insensitive to the historical past of the establishment,” he stated.
Some Columbia school members have denounced Shafik’s choice to authorize the NYPD to take away protesters from campus and demanded all authorized and disciplinary fees be dismissed and expunged from college students’ data. The college voted to submit a symbolic measure censuring Shafik for her choice to authorize the NYPD, which they stated was an “unprecedented assault on scholar rights.”
Shafik has denounced antisemitism, urged college students to report incidents of discrimination and stated hateful speech and acts towards Jews could be investigated by the college since Hamas’ assault on civilians in Israel on October 7.
On November 1, she introduced the formation of a college activity drive on antisemitism.
Throughout congressional testimony final week, Shafik stated college students and college have been disciplined for antisemitism and that extra work was wanted to fight antisemitism.
Nonetheless, Shafik and the college administration are underneath hearth for his or her response to antisemitism and to Islamophobia, as properly.
Final fall, a Columbia scholar who was hanging posters on campus in assist of Israel was assaulted. The college has additionally confronted criticism for hiring a professor who allegedly expressed assist for Hamas on social media following the October 7 terror assault on Israel. That professor has been fired, Shafik stated final Wednesday.
The Division of Training is investigating Columbia, UPenn, Harvard and 4 different faculties after complaints about alleged incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia. On the conclusion of the investigations, the Division of Training will make suggestions to the colleges. The faculties danger dropping federal funding in the event that they don’t comply.
Some Jewish college students have described being verbally and bodily harassed on campus, and there have been incidents exterior of Columbia’s campus of antisemitism.
Columbia’s Hillel group has referred to as on the college to do extra to guard college students and make sure that college students can stroll round campus with out concern of harassment.
Some main donors, Republican lawmakers and a handful of Democratic lawmakers have stated these incidents present Shafik’s response to antisemitism is missing and referred to as on her to resign.
“I’m not assured that Columbia can defend its college students and employees, and I’m not comfy supporting the college till corrective motion is taken,” New England Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft, who graduated from Columbia and has donated thousands and thousands of {dollars} to the college, stated Monday. “It’s my hope that Columbia and its management will stand as much as this hate by ending these protests instantly.”