Columbia taps University of Wisconsin chancellor to lead after 2 years of turmoil
NEW YORK– Columbia University has named Jennifer Mnookin, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as its next president as it tries to emerge from two years of turmoil that included campus protests against the war between Israel and Hamas and President Donald Trump’s subsequent campaign to stifle student activism and force changes at the Ivy League school.
Mnookin’s appointment was announced Sunday evening. She will take up her new role on July 1, becoming Colombia’s fifth leader in the last four years.
The Trump administration took aim at Colombia shortly after taking office last year, making it its first target in what became a broader campaign to influence how elite U.S. universities handled the protests, which students they admitted and what they taught in the classroom.
Immigration officials jailed some Columbia students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests in 2024. The administration canceled $400 million in research grants to the school and its affiliated hospital system in the name of combating anti-Semitism on campus, and threatened to withhold billions more in government support.
Ultimately, Columbia reached an agreement with the administration to pay more than $220 million to restore research funds. He also agreed to overhaul the university’s student disciplinary process and apply a controversial, federally approved definition of anti-Semitism not only to teaching but also to a disciplinary committee that investigated students critical of Israel.
Mnookin’s predecessor, Nemat Shafik, resigned in August 2024 after scrutiny of his handling of campus protests and divisions. The university appointed Katrina Armstrong, chief executive of its medical school, but she resigned last March, days after Columba agreed to the deal. The board then appointed its co-president, Claire Shipman, as interim president while they searched for a permanent leader.
Mnookin, 58, was previously dean of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law before being appointed to her current position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in August 2022. She received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, her law degree from Yale Law School, and her doctorate in history and social studies of science and technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
