Columbia University taps University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin as next president

After nearly a year and a half without a permanent leader as pro-Palestinian protests and extraordinary federal scrutiny shook its campus, Columbia University on Sunday named Jennifer Mnookin, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as its next president.

Mnookin, a jurist specializing in the intersection of law and science, will be Colombia’s fifth president in four tumultuous years. His departure from UW-Madison and appointment to Columbia was first confirmed by University of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman, who said Mnookin would remain at Wisconsin through the end of the spring semester.

“I am honored and excited to join Columbia University at this important time,” Mnookin said in a statement. “Columbia is defined by rigorous scholarship, a deep commitment to open inquiry, world-class patient care, and an inseparable and enduring connection to New York City, the greatest city in the world. »

In his new role at Columbia, Mnookin, 58, is expected to face a host of challenges, perhaps most notably complying with and dealing with the fallout from last summer’s resolution agreement with the Trump administration. She will also be tasked with making inroads with a faculty that has lost confidence in its leadership, an alumni base frustrated by the school’s response to President Trump and protests on campus, and students who remain deeply divided since the spring 2024 protests.

“President-elect Mnookin brings to Columbia an exceptional academic and leadership pedigree and a reputation for building trust through listening and engagement,” Columbia Board of Trustees co-chairs David Greenwald and Jeh Johnson wrote in a statement. “She is known as a thoughtful consensus builder who strives for excellence in every area, bringing both vision and energy to the work of institutional leadership. »

“She will be an outstanding leader of our great university,” the co-presidents added.

It was not immediately clear how Mnookin would handle the protests in Columbia if they were to break out. In Wisconsin, Mnookin authorized police in 2024 to clear a first pro-Palestinian encampment, before reaching an agreement with the Madison chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine to dismantle the tents that were set up there, according to the student newspaper and university statements.

“We must maintain our commitment to freedom of expression, which implies and must include our adherence to the rules, laws and policies that ensure that the space for dialogue is open to all,” Mnookin wrote in a statement at the time. “And we must continue to work to find ways to see each other, to listen to each other, to understand and recognize our common humanity. »

Mnookin’s selection comes after Columbia had to delay its presidential search by nearly a month late last year, following two candidates dropping out of the process, Bloomberg reported. The student newspaper Columbia Spectator reported at the time that it was the longest period the university had gone without a permanent president since 1948.

Before leading Wisconsin State’s flagship campus, Mnookin was dean of UCLA Law School, where she spent 17 years as a professor, according to her school biography. Prior to that, she was a professor of law at the University of Virginia Law School and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School.

She received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, her law degree from Yale Law School, and a doctorate in history and social studies of science and technology from MIT.

The top position at Columbia has gone unfilled since the summer of 2024, when former President Minouche Shafik resigned from her post after facing criticism for her handling of campus protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza. Some Jewish and Israeli students found his handling of the protests offensive.

Shafik twice summoned the New York Police Department to arrest protesters on campus, including a small group that occupied the university’s Hamilton Hall.

In his place, the university temporarily installed Katrina Armstrong, the medical school dean who was rumored to be a finalist for the permanent position. But she abandoned her post last March, when she came under fire from the Trump administration during negotiations to restore critical federal research grants.

Columbia ultimately agreed with the federal government to restart funding under the leadership of Claire Shipman, who, until Mnookin is sworn in, is expected to continue serving as interim president.

That resolution agreement extended to topics unrelated to the anti-Semitic claims the negotiations were supposed to address, and sparked new, but much smaller, protests near campus earlier this school year against government excesses and threats to academic freedom.