Posted on 08/14/24
| News Source: NY Post
Columbia University president Minouche Shafik has resigned from the elite institution, according to a report.
Shafik is stepping away after just one year at the helm, which was marked by constant — and sometimes destructive — anti-Israel protests, the Free Beacon reported.
The embattled president 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.
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.
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.