Columbia College president Minouche Shafik will skip the most important ceremony for graduating seniors on campus subsequent week following weeks of division over anti-Israel protests that ended with two NYPD crackdown on campus.
A be aware that went out to scholar at Columbia School — which is attended by greater than half of the college’s undergraduate college students — indicated that Shafik wouldn’t seem at “Class Day.”
The Class Day celebrations sometimes characteristic scholar and keynote audio system, and are an opportunity for graduates to stroll throughout the stage and shake fingers with the dean and college president earlier than they’re formally conferred their levels.
Class Day can be a serious alternative for family and friends members to have a good time the completion of research on the $90,000-per-year college.
Shafik’s absence on the Could 14 occasion was quietly introduced through an addendum to a Class Day data e-mail that was despatched to college students, Columbia senior Irie Sentner first reported.
“Program Adjustment: President Shafik is not going to be in attendance at Columbia School’s Class Day ceremony. Please be aware: this transformation shouldn’t be mirrored in printed applications,” the be aware learn, based on the e-mail seen by The Submit.
Columbia declined to substantiate the report when initially reached by The Submit.
Columbia School is the primary undergraduate faculty on the Ivy League college, alongside the Fu Basis Faculty for Engineering and Utilized Sciences and the Common Research program.
The workplaces for Columbia School are positioned in Hamilton Corridor, the educational constructing that was occupied by anti-Israel protesters earlier this month.
Shafik – who was already in sizzling water on each side over her dealing with of the campus tent encampment – confronted a brand new wave of criticism when she approved the NYPD to raid campus for a second time and clear constructing.
The operation resulted in dozens of arrests and added to the continued strife on-campus.
Just a few days later, Columbia introduced it was canceling the university-wide graduation ceremony on account of safety considerations.
In a video assertion shared shortly after the Hamilton raid, Shafik mentioned the protesters who occupied the constructing had “crossed a brand new line.”
The incident additionally resulted in a big group of indignant college students working towards the standard finals week “primal scream” outdoors Shafik’s official residence.
The scholars shouted “resign” and “disgrace on you” on the Morningside Heights manse, together with requires Columbia to divest from Israel.
In an op-ed printed within the Monetary Occasions this week, Shafik urged different college officers to “have interaction in critical soul looking’ over the fallout from the protest motion that swept the nation.
“We should do a greater job of defining the boundaries between the free speech rights of 1 a part of our neighborhood and the rights of others to be educated in a spot freed from discrimination and harassment,” she wrote.
Columbia didn’t instantly reply to The Submit’s request for a touch upon Shafik’s choice to skip the category day, and whether or not she can even fail to seem at different commencement celebrations.
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