Israel – Hamas | Who is Nemat Shafik, the Columbia president who went from facing global crises to angry students

The military campaign that Israel launched in October of last year in the Palestinian enclave after the terrorist attack by the Islamist group Hamas provoked a wave of student demonstrations in Columbia that grew in recent weeks with students setting up tents in the campus courtyard main and chanting slogans in favor of Palestinian civilians and in rejection of Israel’s actions.

On the one hand, Shafik, also known as Minouche Shafik, had to deal with accusations of allowing anti-Semitism at the university and failing to ensure the safety of all students. On the other hand, she had to face demands for freedom of expression to be respected.

After several failed attempts at dialogue with students, Shafik last week allowed the police to intervene in the demonstrations on campus, resulting in more than 100 arrests. It was the missing fuse for the protests to remain firm and expand strongly to other universities in the country.

“The crisis led the Columbia administration to decide to withdraw the protesters, but ultimately this has only led to the tension at the university escalating,” Carlo Ángeles, a Peruvian studying a master’s degree in Public Administration at Columbia, told El Comercio.

In a message to campus last week, Shafik acknowledged that he was taking an “extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances.” The camp, he said, “seriously disrupts campus life and creates an environment of harassment and intimidation for many of our students.”

The New York Times notes that Shafik faces criticism from multiple sides for how he is handling the protests on campus, evidencing the enormous challenge of leading a higher education center.

Prominent global figure

Nemat Shafik, 61, assumed the presidency of Columbia with optimism. “I have had jobs related to doing good, such as fighting poverty or running educational institutions, as well as jobs aimed at preventing bad things from happening, such as at the IMF and the Bank of England. Both are vital if we want to achieve and ensure progress for humanity,” the economist said at the time, according to the Columbia website.

Already at that time, the American media claimed that his international experience was notable and unusual for a university president in the United States.

Shafik was born in Alexandria, Egypt. In the mid-1960s, when she was only four years old, her family migrated to the United States fleeing political crises and discrimination.

Columbia notes that Shafik and her sister attended numerous schools in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, and she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Politics in 1983. She earned a Master of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1986, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, in 1989.

After that, his career focused on global development continued to grow. At 36 she was already the youngest vice president of the World Bank and in the early 2000s she held academic positions at the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, and the Department of Economics at Georgetown University.

In 2008, she was appointed permanent secretary of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. She later served as Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. In 2017 she returned to academia as president of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

“Throughout his career, Shafik has been at the center of efforts – often during crucial, high-stakes moments – to address some of the world’s most complex and disruptive challenges,” Columbia says.

He gives as an example that at the World Bank, the economist worked on the institution’s first report on the environment and then advised governments in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She also worked on both the European debt crisis and the Arab Spring while she was at the IMF. “At the Bank of England, she led work on tackling misconduct in financial markets and was responsible for contingency planning around the Brexit referendum. At the LSE, she has encouraged academic work on how to rethink the social contract for the modern economy,” the university adds.

“The New York Times” recalls that when she became president of Columbia, the university’s board of trustees said it had found a “perfect candidate” in Shafik, a “bright and capable global leader, a community builder and a preeminent economist who understands the academy” and the world beyond it.”

Defense in Congress

The war in Gaza caused several universities in the United States to face several cases of anti-Semitism. Columbia responded by suspending two pro-Palestinian student groups for violating university policies, and a committee was also created to combat the problem.

Congress held a hearing on anti-Semitism on college campuses in December last year, but Shafik did not attend due to a previously planned international trip.

Shafik appeared before the Congressional Education and Workforce Committee in mid-April at the invitation of Republican lawmakers. During his speech he was asked if calling for genocide violated the school’s code of conduct, to which he flatly stated that he does.

He also claimed that a professor who described the Oct. 7 attacks as “stunning” would be removed from his leadership position.

“By the end of the hearing, some Republican lawmakers had praised university leaders for recognizing that Columbia had a problem. But new problems were brewing at home. “Dr. Shafik’s conciliatory approach during the hearing was criticized by academic freedom advocates, particularly her revelations about ongoing investigations against faculty members,” recalls “The New York Times.”