St. Antony’s GCR overrides Columbia University President’s alumni privileges

The Graduate Common Room (GCR) of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, has voted to revoke the alumni privileges of Dame Baroness Minouche Shafik, the current president of Columbia University who called her students to the police. Shafik earned a PhD from St Antony’s, a graduate-only college at Oxford.

The motion states that Shafik’s response to the Columbia University student protests was “widely criticized as appalling.” One of the citations includes a video in which “New York City police can be seen throwing the body of a student down a stone staircase.” At Columbia University, police arrested more than 200 people.

St Antony’s GCR application states: “Minouche Shafik’s handling of the student protests is contrary to the values ​​of free expression, human rights and ethical leadership that our university upholds. Our university community has a responsibility to take a stand against actions by alumni that undermine these core principles.”

The motion, passed on May 30, formally asks St. Antony’s College to suspend Shafik’s alumni privileges, which include an annual free High Table dinner, and to prohibit her from visiting college grounds, speaking at college events and attending alumni events.

A spokesman for St. Antony’s College said Cherwell that the motion is being discussed by the Governing Body, so the college cannot comment at this time. The spokesperson said: “At this time, our greatest concern is the welfare of our students, both those who are protesting and those who are not, particularly those who are engrossed in their academic work at the end of the year.”

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine said Cherwell: “We stand in solidarity with students in Oxford and around the world who are calling for a move away from genocide and apartheid, and we welcome the motion to suspend Baroness (Shafik’s) alumni privileges.”

“Even before her brutal treatment of peaceful protesters, she had threatened academic freedom on an unprecedented scale by firing professors who spoke about settler colonialism in Palestine and objective history while ignoring the ongoing, pervasive persecution and harassment by Zionist professors. Someone who chooses to invest in the destruction of every university in Gaza and bring violence and authoritarianism to her own campus has absolutely no place in academia.”