Who is Minouche Shafik and why is she linked with US student arrests?

When Nemat “Minouche” Shafik took office as the 20th president of New York City’s Columbia University in July 2023, she became the first new president in more than 20 years at the Ivy League institute, as well as the first woman and person of Middle Eastern heritage to lead the school.

Chair Emeritus of Columbia University's Board of Trustees Jonathan Lavine, stated in a letter, that in Shafik, 61, they found the ideal candidate, describing her as “a brilliant and able global leader, a community builder, and a preeminent economist, who understands the academy and the world beyond it”.

Less than a year into her tenure at the university, Shafik now faces growing scrutiny and calls for resignation after allowing New York Police Department officers to enter campus and clear out protesting students who are part of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment.

This resulted in the arrest of over 100 individuals who, according to the NYPD, were “peacefully protesting,” reporting no violence or injuries linked to the encampment. Three days later, student demonstrators erected tents again in a different part of campus, continuing the protests on April 21.

The Gaza Solidarity Encampments have since spread beyond Columbia’s campus, including Emerson New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, and more.

Students are demanding universities divest from companies linked to Israel, following its war on Gaza that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians and injured over 77,000 others, mostly children and women.

From Egypt to the world

Born in Alexandria, Egypt to a family of chemists — her father and grandfather both had PhDs in chemistry — Shafik moved to Savannah, Georgia at the age of four.

Her family had fled Egypt after “losing everything” during political and economic unrest in the 1960s, according to Columbia, and grew up in the American South.

By the age of 15, she had attended ten different schools in three different cities, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.

She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Politics in 1983, before receiving a Master of Science in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1986, and a Doctor of Philosophy in economics from St Antony's College, Oxford University in 1989.

Having travelled to more than 100 countries, “and working with people from every possible background and point of view,” Shafik has stated that “it really resonates if you've had the privilege of seeing the world in all its differentiated glory.”

Economist and academic

Throughout her career, she has worked for over 20 years in global development and foreign aid and has held several prestigious positions, including Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. At the age of 36, she became the World Bank's youngest-ever vice president.

Shafik has also worked for the UK's Department for International Development, and the Bank of England. In 2017, during her previous role right before serving in Columbia, she joined the world of academia as president of the London School of Economics.

During her tenure there, Shafik was questioned by students on a range of issues, including the controversial admission of a student who participated in the notorious white supremacist rally, Unite the Right, that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.

The student in question, Peter Cvjetanovic, became a symbol of alt-right violence and racism after he was photographed holding a burning tiki torch while shouting along with other white nationalists in the Charlottesville rally which turned deadly when a car ploughed into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others.

Students at LSE protested Cytanovic's presence on campus and called for his expulsion, but the school allowed him to remain enrolled.

Shafik stated the school is a place of learning that upholds strong ethics codes and student codes of conduct, saying political screening was “impossible and illegal” and that Cvjetanovic had made a statement renouncing his past views.

British newspaper the Independent reported the London school saying, “Students and staff are free to hold and express their own views, however, we expect everyone within the LSE community to treat each other with respect at all times.”

Citing his right to free speech in the first amendment of the US constitution, the University of Nevada, where Cvjetanovic was enrolled during the time of the Charlottesville rally, had also previously refused to expel the then-undergraduate despite considerable pressure from other students.

In 2021, Huffpost reported that Cvjetanovic was expelled from the Nevada National Guard after officials discovered his extremist ties through a background check

Shafik is also an author. In her 2021 book titled What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract, she advocates for an improved social contract that can uphold economic systems, urging both individuals and institutions to reconsider how we can collaborate to create a better support system that aids everyone to flourish.

In a YouTube video introducing her as Columbia’s president, she mentioned her favourite description of the school, which is committed to what it calls “uninhibited discourse” and will only “limit expression in very limited circumstances,” comes from former dean, Frederick Woodbridge.

“It's a quote in the opening of a history of the university, which says, ‘We are inextricably mixed up with what goes on in the world. It's a spirit that doesn't look inward at itself, but outward on a city and a world’,” Shafik said.

“You know, there's always another point of view, a different approach to a problem, and that's what I love about Colombia,” she added.

“Whether it's tackling challenges like climate change or a global public health crisis, or exploring the foundations of philosophy, science and the arts through the core curriculum, Colombia thrives as a centre for ideas and the advancement of knowledge because it is a rich, diverse community where everyone has something to contribute.”