2024-08-16 14:20:02
Yakira Galler, a Barnard College sophomore, was finishing up her work at a Jewish summer camp in New Hampshire when she got a text message from a college friend that her university president had resigned.
The events that led to Minouche Shafik stepping down as Columbia University’s president — such as the pro-Palestinian encampment at the school and the unrest that accompanied it — had punctuated Galler’s first year. She had exams canceled and, at one point, delayed a return to campus out of fears for her safety. But she did not find herself cheering Shafik’s resignation.
“My initial reaction is a little bit disappointed,” Galler told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Even though I disagree with a lot of Shafik’s decisions and felt as though she was not strong-set in what she was standing for, whatever it was, I think that she had an opportunity to teach an important lesson that even when you make mistakes, you can try to fix those mistakes and try to make amends.”
Galler was not the only Jewish Columbia student or graduate to express a measure of ambivalence about Shafik stepping down on Thursday. While some outspoken pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian activists cheered her departure, others said that Shafik deserved a chance to setter the school through calmer waters this year. All hoped that her successor would implement policies that, they hope, will create a safer and more tranquil campus.
“She really did seem thoughtful and caring, and I think that she would have had much more of a chance if it hadn’t been, probably, the most fraught year at Columbia since 1968,” said Gabriel Freedman-Naditch, a junior in the joint undergraduate program between Columbia and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Students, faculty and others wait to enter Columbia University’s campus after the school instituted new security rules before the start of the academic year, Aug. 15, 2024. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Freedman-Naditch had attended listening sessions Shafik held in a bid to deescalate tensions during the spring semester. He thought Shafik should have been quicker to discipline protesters who violated university policies but said he thought the past year was an “impossible” situation for the university to handle.
He’s apprehensive as the new year is set to begin in September.
“I and most other people in the Jewish community are coming back hoping for the best and expecting the worst, but I do hope that people have had time to kind of reflect on the past year, and hopefully we’ll all be able to get more learning done next year,” he added. “Everyone’s still kind of just reeling from the shock of the administration completely turning over over the past few days.”
Activists on campus gave more emphatic reactions to the news — few of them fans of Shafik. Pro-Israel voices have long charged that Shafik let pro-Palestinian students threaten Jews and violate school rules with near-impunity. Pro-Palestinian protesters depicted a mirror image of that critique, blaming her for calling police on the encampment, which led to the arrest of dozens of students, especially after a group occupied a campus building.
“The students of Columbia will never forget the sheer violence unleashed upon us by Minouche Shafik, and we will not be placated by her removal as the university’s repression of the pro-Palestinian student movement continues,” the campus chapter of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace said in a statement shared on X.
Shai Davidai, an Israeli business school professor at Columbia who has become one of the most visible and outspoken critics of its response to the pro-Palestinian protests, issued a video statement with his response to Shafik’s resignation.
“People are asking me if I’m happy. I’m not happy. I’m not unhappy,” he said. “It’s never been about Shafik, it’s never been personal. … It always has and always will be about the Jewish students, staff and faculty.”
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He listed policies he’d like Shafik’s successor to implement, including permanently banning Students for Justice in Palestine, which the university suspended last year; banning masks at protests; and expelling student leaders of “terrorist-supporting pro-Hamas organizations on campus.” He also said Shafik should have been fired earlier in the year.
“I’m looking forward to restoring accountability with the interim president, accountability for students, staff and faculty who engage in antisemitic rhetoric and support terrorism against Jews, against Israelis and against Americans,” he said. “But most of all, I’m looking forward to working with the interim president on making Columbia safe for everyone in our community, Jews and non-Jews.”
Israeli professor Shai Davidai outside of Columbia University, April 22, 2024. (Luke Tress)
Others were less moved by the news. Jeremy Berke, a second-year student at Columbia Business School, told JTA that MBA students were mostly insulated from the tumult of the undergraduate campus activity last year.
“I don’t want to negate anyone’s experience who felt unsafe both from antisemitism and Islamophobia, but Shafik resigning isn’t going to like, plunge Columbia out of the Ivy League or something,” he tweeted. “In ten years it will be a blip.”
Berke added, in a message to JTA, that Shafik did make mistakes, though he did not feel personally affected.
“I would just add that while I think there were some instances of real antisemitism among the protestors, sending like, SWAT teams to crack down on 19-year-olds just inflamed everything and made it worse,” he wrote. “Would reiterate that I certainly heard uncomfortable things on campus/social media, I never once felt unsafe or physically threatened and mostly just avoided it!”
Yehuda Kurtzer, co-president of the Shalom Hartman Institute and a Columbia graduate, wrote in a Facebook post that he was not opining “positively or critically” about Shafik’s performance, but felt that her resignation pointed to the challenges institutions face in retaining leadership. Columbia has named Katrina Armstrong, the CEO of Columbia’s medical center, as interim president.
“What will an inflamed campus look like next year with no chief executive?” he wrote. “I guarantee it will be worse than even an executive you think was flawed. Those of us who believe in and care about leadership need to take a deep breath right now; the work of fixing these fields feels countercultural, impossible, and yet more urgent than ever.”
Like others on campus, Brian Cohen, the executive director of Columbia’s Hillel, told JTA that his focus was on how the administration responds to events on campus, rather than who is in the president’s office.
“Dr. Armstrong is a strong and well respected leader,” he said in a statement. “Regardless of who is president, the challenges this year at Columbia will be significant — but I look forward to working with Dr. Armstrong to deal with the issues on campus.”
Freedman-Naditch said he’s hoping for rules to be enforced — and for an end to the drama.
“I hope that the incoming president will enforce the rules instead of letting chaos rule campus this year,” he said, “because I really do want a normal year of school.”
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Already on Thursday, there were signs that that would not be the case. The campus remains closed to outsiders, but on the street outside, a truck dispatched by Accuracy in Media, a group that has set up provocative displays and been accused of doxxing people at universities with pro-Palestinian protests, displayed a vibrant digital billboard featuring Shafik’s face.
“Minouche Shafik allowed antisemitism to ruin her career,” the billboard said. “Columbia students: Do not make the same mistake.”
