Minouche Shafik
Minouche Shafik, 1962-
Term of Office: 2023-2024
In her short tenure as President, Nemat “Minouche” Shafik established a set of strategic initiatives on academic excellence, operational efficiency, and community designed to help Columbia flourish. She was responsible for recruiting for several high level positions at Columbia: a new provost (Angela V. Olinto), new chief operating officer (Cas Holloway), deans of the schools of Law (Daniel Abebe) and the Arts (Sarah Cole), and the director of the Data Science Institute (Garud N. Iyengar). She also appointed the University’s first ever chief climate officer (Daniel Zarrilli), embedding a commitment to sustainability and climate action into all aspects of Columbia’s work.
But Shafik's tenure was marked primarily by campus protests in response to the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel and the ensuing war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The Pro-Palestinian protests were accompanied by doxing, leading to the establishment, in early November, of a Doxing Resource Group composed of key offices across both Barnard and Columbia campuses that focused on the issues of doxing, harassment and online security.
The protests also contributed to what many saw as a significant rise in antisemitism at Columbia. Those accusations led Shafik to establish a Task Force on Antisemitism towards the end of the fall semester and, in April, to testify at a Congressional hearing in Washington, DC.
Campus protests began days after October 7 and continued throughout the academic year. But the scale and influence of the protests escalated when, on April 17, 2024, a Pro-Palestinian tent encampment was established on the south lawn of campus. The NYPD were brought onto campus to break up the encampment after it had only been in place for little more than 24 hours. That police action led to the immediate formation of a second encampment on an adjacent lawn. These actions at Columbia inspired the establishment of similar encampments at other colleges and universities across the U.S. After twelve days and the failure of several attempts to mediate a resolution, the protestors occupied Hamilton Hall on April 30, 2024. At this point Shafik brought in the NYPD for a second time to end both the occupation of Hamilton Hall and dismantle the encampments. In the wake of the second police action, the traditional University commencement ceremony was canceled and the Morningside campus was locked down for weeks.
The challenges Shafik faced were both unique in scale and to the moment in time. She attempted to walk a fine line amidst competing viewpoints and demands.
Shafik resigned as president on August 14, 2024. She returned to the UK, at the behest of the Foreign Secretary, where she accepted a position to chair a review of the government’s approach to international development.