Citing a “period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community” that has taken a “considerable toll on my family,” Minouche Shafik announced on Wednesday that she is stepping down, immediately, as president of Columbia University.
“I am making this announcement now so that new leadership can be in place before the new term begins,” she wrote. She added that at the request of the U.K. foreign secretary, he next job will be to chair “a review of the government’s approach to international development.”
Under Shafik’s leadership, Columbia’s campus became a place that Jewish faculty and students have said is rife with Jew-hatred and unsafe for Jews. In June, the Ivy League school in Manhattan settled a lawsuit with a Jewish student.
The House Education and the Workforce Committee has said that Columbia is refusing to turn over documents and is threatening to subpoena the school, and three Columbia deans recently resigned after exchanging text messages—which the university said “touched on ancient antisemitic tropes"—during an event about Jew-hatred on campus.
“During Shafik’s presidency, a disturbing wave of antisemitic harassment, discrimination and disorder engulfed Columbia University’s campus,” stated Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the House education committee. “Jewish students and faculty have been mocked, harassed and assaulted simply for their identity. Every student has the right to a safe learning environment. Period. Yet, flagrant violations of the law and the university rules went unpunished.”
“Columbia’s next leader must take bold action to address the pervasive antisemitism, support for terrorism and contempt for the university’s rules that have been allowed to flourish on its campus,” Foxx said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote that “as a result of president Shafik’s refusal to protect Jewish students and maintain order on campus, Columbia University became the epicenter for virulent antisemitism that has plagued many American university campuses since Hamas’s barbaric attack on Israel last fall.”
“I stood in President Shafik’s office in April and told her to resign, and while it is long overdue, we welcome today’s news,” Johnson said. “Jewish students at Columbia beginning this school year should breathe a sigh of relief.”
“We hope that President Shafik’s resignation serves as an example to university administrators across the country that tolerating or protecting antisemites is unacceptable and will have consequences,” he said.
“Three down, so many to go,” wrote Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), chair of the House Republican Conference and a member of the House education committee, referencing the resignations of the presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.
“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.”
“We will continue to demand moral clarity, condemnation of antisemitism, protection of Jewish students and faculty and stronger leadership from American higher education institutions,” she added.
“President Shafik came before the House education committee and refused to tell us the truth about how antisemitism was really handled on campus,” wrote Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.). “Columbia has much more work to do but this is a step in the right direction.”
“Long overdue,” wrote the Republican Jewish Coalition. “Good riddance.”
Eliana Johnson, the editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon, broke the news.
