Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has resigned amid a free-flowing debate over the Gaza war protests.
Mrs. Shafik’s resignation comes a year after she took the position at an Ivy League university in New York City, and just weeks before the start of the fall semester.
Ms Shafik is the third president of an Ivy League university to resign over her handling of the Gaza war protests.
In April, Ms. Shafik authorized officers from the New York Police Department to flood the campus, a controversial decision that led to the arrest of about 100 students who lived in the university building.
The episode marks the first mass arrests on the Columbia campus since the Vietnam War protests more than five decades ago.
The move sparked protests at many colleges in the United States and Canada.
In an email she wrote to students and teachers on Wednesday, Ms Shafik wrote that she has overseen “a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome differences of opinion throughout our community”.
“This time has been very traumatic for my family, as it has been for others in our community.”
Katrina Armstrong, CEO of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will serve as interim president.
“Over the summer, I was able to reflect and decide that my continuation at this time will enable Columbia to face the challenges ahead,” Ms. Shafik wrote in her letter.
“I tried to walk in a way that preserves the principles of education and treats everyone with fairness and compassion,” he continued.
“It has been sad—for the community, for me as president and on a personal level—to find myself, my colleagues and students dealing with threats and harassment.”
Student anger over the way Israel is fighting Hamas has raised tough questions for university leaders, who are already grappling with heated debates about what is happening in the Middle East.
US college campuses have been the focus of protests over the Gaza war since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, and Israel’s incursion into the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
Leaders from Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all testified before the House Education and Labor Committee.
The presidents of Harvard and UPenn eventually resigned over backlash over their handling of college protests and congressional testimony, including their refusal to say that calling for the death of Jews might violate university policy.
In April, Ms Shafik defended her institution’s efforts to deal with the rift with the Congress, saying that there was an increase in hatred on campus and that the college was working to protect students.
Ms. Shafik is a highly respected Egyptian-born economist who previously worked for the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England.
He has served as president of the London School of Economics.
Ms Shafik, who gained her manhood in 2015, was previously considered to be on the list of governors of the Bank of England, the BBC reported in 2019.
His letter adds that he has been asked by the UK Foreign Secretary to lead “a review of the government’s approach to international development and capacity building”.
The decision, he wrote, “enables me to return to the House of Lords and re-engage with the important legislative agenda set out by the new UK government”.
His resignation comes after three deans at Columbia University also resigned last week, after text messages showed the group used “antiviral drugs” when interviewing Jewish students.
The text of the exchange was originally published by the Republican-led House Committee on Education and Labor in early July.
Mrs. Virginia Foxx, who is the chairman of the congressional committee, praised the decision of the three managers to resign.
“About time. Actions have consequences,” he said in a statement last Thursday, adding that the decision should have been made “months ago”.
“Instead, the University continues to send mixed signals,” he continued, adding that the administration allowed a lecturer who did not resign to “slip under the radar without real consequences”.
Universities around the US are preparing for the academic year that will begin in the next few weeks, as the conflict in Gaza continues.
On Tuesday, a California judge ruled that UCLA — which saw violent protests erupt on campus in May — must prevent protesters from blocking Jewish students on campus.
Judge Mark Scarsi ruled that the protesters “set up checkpoints and demanded that passers-by wear a certain wristband to cross them”, and blocked “people who support the existence of the state of Israel”.
“Jewish students are excluded from certain parts of the UCLA campus because they refuse to renounce their faith,” Judge Scarsi wrote in the order. “This fact is so unthinkable and repugnant to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating.”
The university blamed foreign developers for the testing sites and said it opposes the decision.
Hamas-led gunmen killed around 1,200 people during an attack on Israel on October 7, and took another 251 back to Gaza as hostages.
That attack sparked the Israeli army’s biggest offensive against Gaza and the current war.
At least 39,897 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
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