After a little more than a year in office, the president of the University of Columbia, Minouche Shafik, renunció este miércoles a su puesto tras soportar fuertes pressures por su manejo de las pro-Palestinian demonstrations en el campus y denuncias de antisemitismo.
She was the third president of an Ivy League university (the group of the oldest and most prestigious universities of the EE.UU) and resigned in eight months after they had to attend hearings in the Congress on an investigation on antisemitism. los campus tras el ataque terrorist del 7 de octubre por parte de Hamas y la represalia israelí sobre Gaza.
Shafik, una economista de origen egipcio que había forjado gran parte de su career en Londres, donde fue presidenta de la London School of Economics entre otros cargos, dijo el miercoles por la noche en una carta a la comunidad de Columbia que, si bien sentía que el campus había progresado en algunas áreas importantes, también había sido un periodo de agitación “en el que ha sido difícil superar los puntos de vista divergentes en nuestra comunidad”.
“Este period ha tenido un costo considerable para mi familia, como ha sido para otros en nuestra comunidad” he aggregated. “.
He added that his resignation was effective immediately, and that he would accept a job with the Secretary of Foreign Relations of Great Britain before leading a revision of the government's focus on international development.
La reemplaezará en forma interina Katrina Armstrong, decana del Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos de Columbia, quien dijo que “al assuming this charge, I am very conscious of the tests that the University has faced during the past year. we won't convert”, he continued.
The resignation of Shafik, who last July became the first woman to lead this 270-year-old university, fue unexpected en este momentoa poco de iniciarse las clases en septiembre. Los miembros del directorio de Columbia had said that they supported their leadership and, in addition, the campus had been in great peace during the summer.
Pero el repentino final y la brevedad de la presidency de Shafik subraya el profundo impacto de las pro-Palestinian demonstrations que shook the campus of the universities of all the country in the last months.
Shafik se habia visto atrapada in the middle of a controversy related to anti-Semitism on campus after the Hamas attack and the protests related to the conflict, as well as his decision to call the New York Police Department before leaving campus en abril, una redada que terminó con más de 100 detenidos, después de que los demonstrators occuparan edificios.
They also faced criticism from students and Jewish organizations, but allowed the camps to remain in the camps during the days before they were dislodged. Los estudiantes judíos denunciaron actos de intimidación y semitidas por parte de los demonstantes. Algunos importantes donors de la Universidad pausaron sus aportes por las denuncias de antisemitismo.
The president of the House of Representatives, the republican Mike Johnson, y otros legisladores fueron a Columbia en abril para denunciar a Shafik ya la Universidad por no proteger a los estudiantes judíos en el campus durante los campamentos.
“TRES MENOS, muchos por irse”, publicó en X la representative republicana Elise Stefanik, que dedicó gran parte del último año a investigater a los presidentes de las universidades por su conducta a raíz de las pro-Palestine protests.
“The failed presidency of the president of the University of Columbia, Minouche Shafik, was unsustainable and it was only a question of time before that it was only a question of time before his forced resignation”, said the legislator, who had interrogated with virulence a variety presidentas de Universidades en duras audiencias en el Capitolio.
Stefanik referred in his message to the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill, and the president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, who resigned during this academic year.
Both Gay and Magill testified before the Comité de Educación y Fuerza Laboral de la Cámara de Representantes in December and faced strong criticism but did not compromise the discipline of the students.
Shafik's brief mandate was a tough sample of the challenges facing the presidents of the American universities these times, while seeking to balance the security of students, freedom of expression and academic freedom.