Professors want no confidence in the university chancellor

Columbia University’s branch of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is urging the university senate to pass a vote of no confidence against chancellor Minouche Shafik, writes the Columbia Spectator.

This comes after more than 100 protesters were arrested on campus on Tuesday.

“We have lost confidence in the administration at Columbia after it has ignored university statutes and tradition that have been respected for the past 60 years, by allowing our students to be arrested with the use of violence, and by imposing a militarized lockdown on our campus,” the professors write. in a statement.

– This culminated in horrific police attacks on our students that the whole world can now see. Staff and students were locked out of our own campus long before the police arrived, and are still locked out as this letter is being written: from offices, laboratories, and the library, for the first time in Columbia’s history, the AAUP continues.

In addition to rector Shafik, the professors want the senate to pass a vote of no confidence against others in the management who have been involved in allowing the police to break up non-violent demonstrations on campus.

The university senate at Columbia University already discussed the handling of the demonstrations a week ago. It then directed criticism at the headmaster, but not a formal censure.

— Broke the bylaws

109 people were arrested after the police arrived on campus. Videos have shown police using stun grenades and tactical equipment as they entered Hamilton Hall. Students occupied this building on Tuesday morning, blocking entrances with tables and chairs.

According to the AAUP, the chancellor violated the bylaws of the university when she allowed the police to remove the students. The statutes state that a committee must be set up in the university senate before the university can allow external authorities to break up disruptive protests. The administration has also done this several times in the autumn of 2023, which AAUP believes has contributed to weakening trust in the administration over a long period of time.

Over 900 arrested

Across the United States, students and professors have demonstrated against Israel recently. Almost 900 people have been arrested in connection with various protests. Many students have set up tent camps at their universities. Students at the University of Oslo have also done this.

– We are doing this because we want UiO to end all agreements with Israeli universities, and also to review its procurement agreements and end the agreements that are on the BDS list, acting spokesperson Monica Celine Jacobsen told Khrono earlier this week.

In a round of hearings in Congress before Christmas, a number of university rectors were put under severe pressure. Several resigned, including Roxanne Gay, who was chancellor at Harvard University.

Minouche Shafik also had to attend a hearing in Congress, which she did not do until mid-April. She was hard pressed and told that a professor who had expressed support for Hamas had been dismissed. Shafik said there are a total of five cases of staff who have either been removed from teaching or have been dismissed in connection with anti-Semitic statements. Many students have also been expelled following the demonstrations in recent weeks.