Columbia leadership rebuked by faculty panel for police crackdown on protesters
Columbia University’s embattled president came under renewed pressure on Friday as a campus oversight panel sharply criticized her administration for clamping down on a pro-Palestinian protest at the Ivy League school.
President Nemat Minouche Shafik has faced an outcry from many students, faculty and outside observers for summoning New York police to dismantle a tent encampment set up on campus by protesters against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
After a two-hour meeting on Friday, the Columbia University Senate approved a resolution that Shafik’s administration had undermined academic freedom and disregarded the privacy and due process rights of students and faculty members by calling in the police and shutting down the protest.
“The decision… has raised serious concerns about the administration’s respect for shared governance and transparency in the university decision-making process,” it said.
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