Staff at Columbia University in New York voted that they no longer had confidence in their president after she was accused of mishandling pro-Palestinian student protests.
Sixty-five per cent of about 700 professors from the faculty of arts and sciences condemned Minouche Shafik on Thursday, while 29 per cent voted in her favour.
Although the resolution has no bearing on her employment, it underlines the criticism of her response to the pro-Gaza demonstrations. The university experienced weeks of tumult and New York police twice entered the campus at Shafik’s request to remove a protest encampment.
Student activists decried the more than 200 arrests and suspensions that resulted, and Shafik’s decision to cancel graduation ceremonies even after the lawn was cleared of protesters.
Shafik, 61, who
