The College of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University voted, on Thursday, to withdraw confidence from university president Nemat Shafik, in an indication of growing opposition over her controversial handling of the anti-protests.Israel’s war on Gaza.
Shafik, known as Minouche, faced criticism after she called on the police to disperse the protesting students who had barricaded themselves inside the university building in New York.
Among the 709 professors who voted in favor of the resolution, which was presented by the Columbia branch of the non-profit American Association of University Professors (AAUP), 65% supported the decision to withdraw confidence from Shafik, while 29% voted against it, and 6% abstained from voting, according to the newspaper “Columbia Spectator“.
The website noted,Axios“This move reflects the dissatisfaction felt by some on campus over Shafiq’s recent testimony before Congress, and her reaction to the pro-Palestinian student protests.
Shafik’s testimony before a Republican-led congressional committee on April 17 focused on the university’s response to increasing reports of “anti-Semitism.”
After the hearing, Shafik cracked down on the protesters, leading to the New York Police Department arresting more than 100 people, and the arrest of more students in subsequent days.
Similar demonstrations of solidarity were held on campuses across the country, leading to more arrests at New York, Yale, and several other universities.
‘firm condemnation’
The no-confidence decision issued against Shafik condemned her for violating “basic requirements of academic freedom” and “unprecedented assault on students’ rights,” saying both required “unequivocal and unequivocal condemnation.”
“We have lost confidence in the ability of senior management, embodied by the president, to make the right decisions for Columbia based on a series of errors, misjudgments, transgressions, and violations of the rules of governance and standards of administrative conduct during last school year.”
The Society’s chapter at Columbia University had previously proposed that the university senate hold a vote of no confidence in Shafik, but it refrained from censuring, and instead issued a resolution calling for an investigation into her actions, according to the newspaper.The New York Times“.
Over the past weeks, tensions have escalated greatly against the backdrop of the war waged by Israel on the Gaza Strip on university campuses across the country.
Other top university administrators, such as the president and provost of the University of Southern California, have also been formally denounced by faculty members for their handling of campus protests.
Last year, a separate congressional hearing into anti-Semitism led to the resignation of a university president Harvard Claudine Jay, and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill.