Minouche Shafik has been on the job for less than a year, but the events of the past few weeks have led to widespread calls for her ouster.
On the one side are critics who feel Shafik has not cracked down forcefully enough on protesters they say crossed the line into antisemitism, which includes many prominent Republicans.
What You Need To Know
- Columbia University president Minouche Shafik has withstood a barrage of criticism, with calls for her resignation coming from both sides of the political spectrum
- The American Association of University Professors’ Columbia chapter called for a vote of no confidence in Shafik and other university officials on Thursday
- The university Senate, a governing body made up of faculty, students and administrators, passed a resolution rebuking the administration last week
- Any decision rests with the university’s board of trustees, a 21-member body that last week issued a statement of support for Shafik
“I am here today joining my colleagues in calling on President Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said in an appearance on campus last week.
On the other side are those outraged by the decision to call in the NYPD — first on April 18, then again on Tuesday night. The university Senate, a governing body made up of faculty, students and administrators, rebuked the administration last week, passing a resolution calling for an investigation into the university’s leadership.
Many faculty members have also sided against Shafik.
“She could have begun to defuse the situation long ago,” said Sheldon Pollock, a member of the executive committee of the American Association of University Professors’ Columbia chapter, which on Thursday called for a vote of no confidence in Shafik and other top officials, condemning Tuesday’s police action.
“Under these circumstances — the brutalization of our students, the astonishing lapses in management and the last, however minor, indignity of being closed out of your campus — has raised the temperature,” Pollock said.
But the final word rests with the university’s board of trustees, a 21-member body that hires and fires the president and said in a statement last week it “strongly supports President Shafik.”
Shafik has kept a low profile the past two weeks, though she has issued statements to the school community, including one on Wednesday in which she explained how the occupation of Hamilton Hall had pushed the university to the brink.
“I know I speak for many members of our community in saying that this turn of events has filled me with deep sadness,” the message said. “I am sorry we reached this point.”
Shafik has requested an NYPD presence on campus through at least May 17, which she hopes will ensure an orderly commencement and finally quell the unrest that has defined her brief tenure thus far.
“I have spent most of my time since becoming president on these issues,” Shafik told a Congressional panel last month, “holding over 200 meetings with groups of students, faculty, alumni, donors, parents.”