The timing of her resignation was unexpected. But her resignation was not. Remarkable if you look back on it that she lasted this long. Of course, this long was only a year. It was just over a year ago that Nemat Shafik became president of Columbia University – and already she’s out.
Her presidency was difficult and divisive. It was not terrible – I don’t want to exaggerate. Moreover, to an extent she was a victim of her circumstances, tensions over the conflict in the Middle East running especially high at Columbia, in the heart of New York city. Still, Shafik’s leadership was not adroit – she was not attuned to the temper of her time.
She took her time resigning, pulling the plug just weeks before the start of the new academic year. Likely she finally concluded that the handwriting on the wall was indelible. That her future at Columbia was highly unlikely to be better than her past. So, she quit, effectively from one day to the next.
Dr. Nemat Shafik’s presidency of Columbia University says a lot about leadership in America in the third decade of the 21st century. It’s not an indicator or a harbinger, of course. But to dismiss her sorry story as irrelevant or unimportant is to miss the big picture.
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Note: For Parts I, II, and III of “Leadership in America – the Case of the Campus” see the links below.