Columbia University’s Shafik rebuked over Gaza crackdown but avoids censure
Al Jazeera
University oversight panel says president undermined academic freedom by allowing New York police break up Gaza protest.
Columbia University‘s embattled president came under renewed pressure as a campus oversight panel sharply rebuked her administration for clamping down on a pro-Palestinian protest at its New York campus.
President Nemat Minouche Shafik has faced an outcry from many students, faculty and outside observers for summoning New York police to dismantle a tent encampment set up on campus by students protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza.
After a two-hour meeting on Friday, the Columbia University senate approved a resolution that Shafik’s administration had undermined academic freedom and disregarded the privacy and due process rights of students and faculty members by calling in the police and shutting down the peaceful protest.
“The decision … has raised serious concerns about the administration’s respect for shared governance and transparency in the university decision-making process,” the senate said.
The senate, composed mostly of faculty members and other staff plus student representatives, did not name Shafik in its resolution and avoided the harsher language of a censure.
