Student Union
Columbia's president resigns after months of turmoil, including Gaza protests
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned Wednesday after a brief, tumultuous tenure that saw the head of the prestigious New York university grapple with protests over the Israel-Hamas war and criticism over how the school handled divisions related to the conflict.
The school in upper Manhattan was roiled this year by student protests, culminating in scenes of police officers carrying zip ties and riot shields storming a building that had been occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters. Similar protests swept college campuses nationwide.
In addition to the protests, the school in July removed three deans, who have since resigned, after officials said they exchanged disparaging texts during a campus discussion about Jewish life and antisemitism. Shafik said in a July 8 letter to the school community that the messages were unprofessional and "disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes."
Shafik was also among the university leaders called for questioning before Congress earlier this year. She was heavily criticized by Republicans who accused her of not doing enough to combat concerns about antisemitism on Columbia's campus.
In her letter announcing her resignation, Shafik heralded "progress in a number of important areas" but lamented that her tenure had also been a "period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community." In her statement, she acknowledged the campus protests factored into her decision to resign.
"This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in the community," Shafik wrote. "Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead."
Shafik said she will return to the United Kingdom to lead an effort by the foreign secretary's office reviewing the government's approach to international development and how to improve capability.
"I am very pleased and appreciative that this will afford me the opportunity to return to work on fighting global poverty and promoting sustainable development, areas of lifelong interest to me," she wrote. "It also enables me to return to the House of Lords to reengage with the important legislative agenda put forth by the new UK government."
The Board of Trustees announced that Katrina Armstrong, the CEO of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, agreed to serve as interim president. The board said Armstrong, who is also the executive vice president for the university's Health and Biomedical Sciences, "is the right leader for this moment."
Armstrong said she was "deeply honored" to be leading the university at a "pivotal moment for Columbia."
"Challenging times present both the opportunity and the responsibility for serious leadership to emerge from every group and individual within a community," Armstrong wrote. "This is such a time at Columbia. As I step into this role, I am acutely aware of the trials the University has faced over the past year."
Shafik was named president of the university last year and was the first woman to take on the role, and she was one of several women newly appointed to take the reins at Ivy League institutions.
She had previously led the London School of Economics and before that worked at the World Bank, where she rose through the ranks to become the bank's youngest-ever vice president. Shafik also worked at the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, followed by stints at the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England.
At the time of Shafik's appointment, Columbia Board of Trustees chair Jonathan Lavine described her as a leader who deeply understood "the academy and the world beyond it."
"What set Minouche apart as a candidate," Lavine had said in a statement, "is her unshakable confidence in the vital role institutions of higher education can and must play in solving the world's most complex problems."
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Millions have had student loans canceled under Biden, despite collapse of his forgiveness plan
Despite failing to deliver his promise for broad student loan forgiveness, President Joe Biden has now overseen the cancellation of student loans for more than 5 million Americans — more than any other president in U.S. history.
In a last-minute action on Monday, the Education Department canceled loans for 150,000 borrowers through programs that existed before Biden took office. His administration expanded those programs and used them to their fullest extent, pressing on with cancellation even after the Supreme Court rejected Biden's plan for a new forgiveness policy.
“My Administration has taken historic action to reduce the burden of student debt, hold bad actors accountable, and fight on behalf of students across the country,” Biden said in a written statement.
In total, the administration says it has waived $183.6 billion in student loans.
The wave of cancellations could dry up when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump hasn't detailed his student loan policies but previously called cancellation “vile” and illegal. Republicans have fought relentlessly against Biden's plans, saying cancellation is ultimately shouldered by taxpayers who never attended college or already repaid their loans.
Biden loosened rules for debt forgiveness
The latest round of relief mostly comes through a program known as borrower defense, which allows students to get their loans canceled if they're cheated or misled by their colleges. It was created in 1994 but rarely used until a wave of high-profile for-profit college scandals during the Obama administration.
A smaller share of the relief came through a program for borrowers with disabilities and through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which was created in 2007 and offers to erase all remaining debt for borrowers in a government or nonprofit job who make 10 years of monthly payments.
Most of Monday's borrower defense cancellations were for students who attended several defunct colleges owned by Center for Excellence in Higher Education, including CollegeAmerica, Stevens-Henager College, and Independence University. They are based on past findings that the schools lied to prospective students about their employment prospects and the terms of private loans.
Before Biden took office, those programs were criticized by advocates who said complex rules made it difficult for borrowers to get relief. The Biden administration loosened some of the rules using its regulatory power, a maneuver that expanded eligibility without going through Congress.
As an example, just 7,000 borrowers had gotten their loans canceled through Public Service Loan Forgiveness before the Biden administration took office. Widespread confusion about eligibility, along with errors by loan servicers, resulted in a 99% rejection rate for applicants.
Huge numbers of borrowers made years of payments only to find out they were in an ineligible repayment plan. Some were improperly put into forbearance — a pause on payments — by their loan servicers. Those periods didn't end up counting toward the 10 years of payments needed for cancellation.
The Biden administration temporarily relaxed the eligibility rules during the pandemic and then made it more permanent in 2023. As a result, more than 1 million public servants have now had their balances zeroed out through the program.
All those rule changes were meant to be a companion to Biden's marquee policy for student debt, which proposed up to $20,000 in relief for more than 40 million Americans.
But after the Supreme Court blocked the move, the Biden administration shifted its focus to maximizing relief through existing mechanisms.
Republicans have called for a different approach
Announcements of new cancellation became routine, even as conservatives in Congress accused Biden of overstepping his power. Republican states fought off Biden's later attempts at mass forgiveness, but the smaller batches of relief continued without any major legal challenge.
As Republicans take hold of both chambers of Congress and the White House, Biden's changes could be targeted for a rollback. But it's unclear how far the next administration will go to tighten the cancellation spigot.
Trump proposed eliminating PSLF during his first term in office, but Congress rejected the idea. Project 2025, a blueprint created by the Heritage Foundation for a second Trump term, proposes ending PSLF, and narrowing borrower defense and making repayment plans less generous than existing ones.
