Out: Columbia President Becomes Latest College Head to Resign After Pro-Hamas Protests Swept Campus
It’s rare that the right and left can come together and agree on something, particularly when it regards Israel and Hamas.
But, on Wednesday night, both sides could celebrate a victory: Minouche Shafik is out as the president of Columbia University.
Shafik, who was president of the school for only 13 months, resigned after a series of pro-Gaza protests, which often turned violent, rocked the New York City campus.
As The New York Times noted, Jewish students said they felt unsafe and unsupported, while pro-Hamas protesters were roiled over Shafik’s decision to bring in police to break up a violent encampment that had spread out across campus and taken over an academic building, as The Wall Street Journal reported.
“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” she said in her statement.
“Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead,” she added.
“I am making this announcement now so that new leadership can be in place before the new term begins.”
As the Daily Wire reported, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York — whose grilling of other major college presidents over their failure to unequivocally say that calling for the genocide of Jews would necessarily be hate speech under their schools’ codes of conduct — hailed the decision to resign.
“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,” she 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.”
🚨🚨🚨 THREE DOWN, so many to go.
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…
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) August 14, 2024
While Shafik did manage to say that calling for the genocide of an entire people was in fact hate speech during her testimony before Congress, unlike Claudine Gay of Harvard and Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, she didn’t exactly provide a blueprint to make Jewish students feel any safer.
When she eventually broke up the encampment, which never should have been allowed to fester in the first place, she earned the enmity of the pro-Hamas contingent and the far left — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said that “calling in police enforcement on nonviolent demonstrations of young students on campus is an escalatory, reckless, and dangerous act.”
Of course, as people pointed out when she said that in late April, these were hardly non-violent protesters:
Seems like calling for Hamas to kill more Jews is kinda escalatory, reckless, and dangerous? pic.twitter.com/zic43ykX00
— Magills (@magills_) April 24, 2024
Unsurprisingly, there were reports that the pro-Hamas rabblement were celebrating Shafik’s resignation:
#NOW Pro-Palestine protesters erupt in cheers as they hear the news that embattled Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has resigned. pic.twitter.com/H3iq7m4l4o
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) August 15, 2024
In addition to Claudine Gay and Liz Magill, the presidents of Cornell and Yale retired this year, as well. However, Shafik’s departure comes as much more of a capitulation than those resignation, something more along the lines of the practically forced exit that Gay and Magill endured.
It also came days after several Columbia professors were forced to resign after pictures of them sharing offensive messages in a group chat during an event focused on Jewish life at the university’s campus were leaked. That hardly sounds like a coincidence.
Shafik is an object lesson in straddling the fence when it comes to abject evil. These protesters weren’t just concerned about a two-state solution or human rights; they wanted Zionists dead. This isn’t hyperbole, either. Remember student protest leader Khymani James?
One of the far-left lead student organizers at the @Columbia University encampment for Gaza recorded a livestream saying that “zionists, along with all white supremacists,” need to be killed. Khymani James (pronouns “he/she/they”) says the public should be thankful he has not… pic.twitter.com/6sZBDJV8xt
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 25, 2024
As many pointed out over the past few days, James deleted his pro forma apology for that rant on social media and the school refuses to say whether he’ll be back for the fall semester. That sounds an awful lot like a “yes, he’ll be back” to me.
Not only is Columbia University refusing to say if @KhymaniJames will be returning to campus this fall, he deleted his apology off of his Twitter. pic.twitter.com/uNyM1itSlr
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) August 12, 2024
This is what evil looks like, and Minouche Shafik refused to say that. She tried to accommodate both good and evil, and evil ended up taking over. She should have been gone the second this got out of hand, but she stuck around for the summer.
All we can say is, better late than never. Bon voyage, and please never take the helm at a university again, Minouche Shafik.
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