The pressure cooker that Columbia had become in recent months ended up exploding. Faithful to its rebellious reputation, the prestigious New York university launched a wave of student revolt in support of the Palestinians but ended the year more fractured than ever. However, everything seemed under control this Wednesday, April 17. The deadline had long been ticked on the agenda of the president of the university, Nemat Shafik, who calls herself Minouche Shafik.
She was expected in Washington to be heard by a committee of the House of Representatives on allegations of anti-Semitic remarks made on campuses on the sidelines of demonstrations against the war in Gaza, launched following the Hamas attack on Israel, the October 7. The Egyptian-born economist had plenty of time to prepare for his hearing so as not to fall into the same trap as his colleagues at Harvard, Claudine Gay, and at the University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Magill, who got entangled on the subject. and ended up resigning.
Impeccable brushing, midnight blue suit and glasses on his nose, Minouche Shafik chooses to focus his message on the fight against anti-Semitism. “I am personally committed to doing everything in my power to confront it directly,” she says, going so far as to mention specific disciplinary decisions. Facing the representatives, she gave the feeling of having resisted the steamroller of Republican elected officials who were looking for fault, but, internally, her speech was poorly received and professors accused her of having defended neither the freedom of expression nor academic freedom. “It was a cataclysm!” reacts Marcel Agüeros, treasurer of the American Association of Columbia University Professors. She sold the college! She completely accepted all the terms dictated by the Republicans. »
These few words are just a sample of the storm that will soon hit this sprawling campus frequented by more than 36,000 students. A member of the very exclusive Ivy League, Columbia is one of the oldest schools in the country. Studying there is a privilege in more than one way: registration fees are $68,000 per year, almost $90,000 including room and board.
Tents for Gaza
Minouche Shafik has barely finished his audition when the campus is already in turmoil. Before daylight, a small troop pitched tents on one of the two soft lawns of Morningside Heights, the settlement’s main site in New York. Wedged between the Upper West Side and Harlem, northwest of Manhattan, the place is made up of a majestic square, surrounded by vast red brick buildings and two imposing buildings with Ionic columns. The lawn, peacefully occupied, becomes the “Gaza Solidarity Camp”. Young people don’t know it yet, but they have just initiated a protest movement which will spread to the four corners of the country, and even beyond, to Europe.
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