Posted on 05/06/24
| News Source: FOX45
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., urged the Columbia University Board of Trustees on Monday to remove school President Minouche Shafik from her role.
The speaker's push comes in response to Columbia’s cancellation of its main commencement ceremony, which followed weeks of protests against the university’s investments in companies perceived as helping Israel in its war against Hamas.
“Because it is abundantly clear that President Shafik would rather cede control to Hamas supporters than restore order, Columbia’s Board of Trustees should immediately remove her and appoint a new president who will,” Speaker Johnson said. “Our once great universities desperately need strong moral leadership, now more than ever.”
The university president has shown a “shocking unwillingness” to control Columbia, according to Speaker Johnson.
"They’ve allowed outside agitators and terrorist-sympathizing students and faculty to rewrite campus rules and spew vile, anti-Jewish aggression,” he claimed. “Now, thousands of students who’ve worked hard to achieve their degrees will not get the recognition they deserve.”
Speaker Johnson has also demanded Shafik resign, saying the university allowed “lawless,” antisemitic agitators to take control. The speaker's latest call to the Board of Trustees came three days after Columbia's chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) demanded the school senate file a vote of no confidence in its president. The organization cited Shafik's decision to authorize the clearing of the protests.
“A vote of no confidence in the President and her administration is the only way to begin rebuilding our shattered community and re-establishing the University’s core values of free speech, the right to peaceful assembly and shared governance,” the AAUP said.
Shafik authorized the New York City Police Department (NYPD) last week to clear an academic building protesters broke into and barricaded themselves in. She accused the demonstrators at the time of crossing a “new line” by occupying Hamilton Hall. She also allowed NYPD last month to clear an encampment she alleged fostered a “harassing” and intimidating environment, citing the protesters’ purported violations of university policies.
“The turmoil and tension, division and disruption have impacted the entire community,” Shafik said Friday. “No matter where you stand on any issue, Columbia should be a community that feels welcoming and safe for everyone.”Columbia has barred some student protesters from campus while threatening suspensions and expulsions. Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), one of the encampment’s organizing groups, argued Shafik’s actions were militaristic.