The president of Columbia College, Nemat Shafik, is grappling with the fallout over her dealing with of scholar protests in opposition to the battle in Gaza.
After showing in a congressional listening to the place many Republican lawmakers criticized the college’s efforts to quash antisemitism on campus, the varsity referred to as in native legislation enforcement for the primary time in many years to quell an unauthorized demonstration on Thursday.
The crackdown got here at some point after pro-Palestinian college students had erected an encampment with dozens of tents, and refused to go away till their calls for had been met. The police swept by means of campus, arresting at the least 108 protesters and discarding the tents as college students jeered them.
Some Jewish college students and others have stated they appreciated the response, whereas some left-leaning college members, college students, free speech advocates and others have stated it was too harsh. Inside hours, it was evident that the aggressive response may not have achieved its objective: A number of scholar protesters stated they weren’t solely undiscouraged, however impressed to take new motion.
What Is Dr. Shafik’s Background
Dr. Shafik took the helm of the varsity in July 2023, turning into the primary lady to steer Columbia.
An economist by commerce, she arrived with a uniquely world perspective for a school president. Her childhood was break up throughout continents: Dr. Shafik was born in Egypt, however partly raised in the USA after her household fled the nation when she was 4.
She ventured abroad to Britain to earn a grasp’s diploma on the London College of Economics, an establishment she additionally led for six years earlier than arriving at Columbia. She additionally labored for the Financial institution of England and the Worldwide Financial Fund.
Her worldwide expertise was praised when she was appointed. She beat out a pool of roughly 600 nominations for the position, the campus scholar newspaper, The Columbia Each day Spectator, reported.
The college described her as a “tireless proponent of variety and inclusion,” and one in all her first challenges was to assist the varsity reply to the Supreme Courtroom’s ban on affirmative motion in admissions.
Jonathan Lavine, the previous chair of the college’s board of trustees, referred to as her the “good candidate” on the time. He described her as a “neighborhood builder” who understood the “very important position establishments of upper training can and should play in fixing the world’s most advanced issues.”
How She Responded to the Oct. 7 Assaults
Within the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assaults on Israel, Dr. Shafik referred to as for compassion and civility, and requested the campus neighborhood to come back collectively.
However as Columbia grappled with a number of cases of antisemitism, the administration took stronger stances. In November, the varsity quickly suspended two pro-Palestinian scholar teams — College students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace — as a result of the college stated they’d violated its insurance policies.
Across the identical time, the varsity’s management arrange a process pressure to fight antisemitism, an try to deal with the “root causes” of campus hate. It additionally took some steps to limit the place and when scholar demonstrations may very well be held.
For a while, Columbia — and Dr. Shafik — appeared to keep away from the firestorms embroiling different campuses.
This was largely as a result of Dr. Shafik didn’t attend a congressional listening to in December on antisemitism on school campuses, due to a preplanned worldwide journey. The presidents of Harvard, the College of Pennsylvania and M.I.T. testified and had been swiftly and intensely criticized for failing to obviously state that calling for the genocide of Jews would break their universities’ guidelines.
Days later, Columbia up to date its personal occasion coverage web page to say that requires genocide had been “abhorrent” and inconsistent with the varsity’s values. Selling violence, the web page stated, would “not be tolerated.”
The presidents of Harvard and Penn quickly resigned.
How She Fared in Congress
Home Republicans reinvited Dr. Shafik to seem earlier than the Schooling and Workforce Committee this month. On Wednesday throughout that look, they grilled Dr. Shafik about her establishments’s response to antisemitism.
She appeared to sidestep the land mines that helped precipitate the resignations of the presidents of Harvard and Penn. When questioned on whether or not calling for genocide violated the varsity’s code of conduct, she didn’t hedge in her reply: “Sure, it does,” she stated.
And when requested whether or not a professor who described the Oct. 7 assaults as “superior” can be faraway from a management place, she in the end stated he would. “I believe that will be — I believe, I’d, sure,” she stated.
By the listening to’s finish, some Republican lawmakers had counseled the college’s leaders for acknowledging that Columbia had an issue.
However again at house, new troubles had been brewing. Dr. Shafik’s conciliatory strategy to the listening to was criticized by defenders of educational freedom, notably her disclosures of ongoing probes into college members. One later stated the listening to was the primary time he had realized that he was the topic of an inquiry.
Irene Mulvey, the nationwide president of the American Affiliation of College Professors, stated that the “public naming of professors below investigation to placate a hostile committee” set “a harmful precedent.”
It had “echoes of the cowardice typically displayed through the McCarthy period,” Ms. Mulvey added.
What Occurred on Campus This Week
By the point Dr. Shafik returned to campus from Washington, D.C., a lush central campus garden had been reworked right into a makeshift protest web site.
Professional-Palestinian college students had organized an encampment with dozens of tents, and had given the college’s leaders a message: They’d not depart till their calls for — together with that the varsity divest from companies with ties to Israel — had been met. By means of Wednesday, they had been joined by lots of of different college students.
The subsequent day, the college’s administration took its most forceful step but to crackdown on unauthorized demonstrations, asking town’s Police Division to intervene.
Officers arrested at the least 108 protesters and dismantled the encampment, as a big crowd shouted “Disgrace!” Some vowed that their spirits wouldn’t be shattered. “They’ll threaten us all they need with the police, however on the finish of the day, it’s solely going to result in extra mobilization,” Maryam Alwan, a pro-Palestinian organizer on campus, stated.
After the protesters had been arrested, Mayor Eric Adams defended Dr. Shafik and stated that college students didn’t “have a proper to violate college insurance policies and disrupt studying.” However the administration’s escalation drew swift criticism from authorized teams, defenders of free speech and a few college members.
“I’m actually fearful a couple of spiral through which suppressing protest goes to result in extra aggressive protest,” stated Angus Johnston, a historian of scholar activism.
Dr. Shafik wrote to the campus on Thursday that she was taking an “extraordinary step as a result of these are extraordinary circumstances.” The encampment, she stated, “severely disrupts campus life, and creates a harassing and intimidating atmosphere for a lot of of our college students.”
Since then, she has not made any extra public statements.
