'THREE DOWN, So Many To Go': Elise Stefanik Celebrates Columbia University President's Resignation Following Gaza Protests

On Wednesday, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik announced her resignation from the top spot at the university after months of criticism over her handling of the anti-Israel protests that engulfed the New York City campus earlier this year. The announcement makes the Columbia University president the third high-profile Ivy League leader to step down in the aftermath of the disruptive occupations of college campuses by anti-Israel demonstrators.

"I have had the honor and privilege to lead this incredible institution, and I believe that — working together — we have made progress in a number of important areas," Shafik wrote in a letter to Columbia faculty, staff, and students. "However, it has also been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community. This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community." Shafik added that her resignation "would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead."

"I have tried to navigate a path that upholds academic principles and treats everyone with fairness and compassion," she explained. "It has been distressing—for the community, for me as president, and on a personal level—to find myself, colleagues, and students the subject of threats and abuse." Katrina Armstrong, the head of the medical school at Columbia, will replace Shafik. "I am acutely aware of the trials the university has faced over the past year," Armstrong wrote. "We should neither understate their significance nor allow them to define who we are and what we will become."

In response to the resignation, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who grilled the university presidents during a congressional hearing earlier this year on their policies towards the protestors, told Breitbart, "THREE DOWN, so many to go. As I have said consistently since her catastrophic testimony at the Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, Columbia University's President Minouche Shafik's failed presidency was untenable and that is was only a matter of time before her forced resignation."

"After failing to protect Jewish students and negotiating with pro-Hamas terrorists, this forced resignation is long overdue," the New York representative added. "We will continue to demand moral clarity, condemnation of antisemitism, protection of Jewish students and faculty, and stronger leadership from American higher education institutions."

The Columbia University president's resignation is a welcome sign for those wanting accountability for the mistakes that led to demonstrators occupying the campus for weeks. Under Shafik's leadership, Columbia became the epicenter of the anti-Israel occupation movement that swept the country, and she is finally being held responsible for her failure. While anti-Israel demonstrations may repeat this fall on these Ivy League campuses, university administrators will likely be far more harsh with students unless they want to face the same fate as Shafik.

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