Columbia University on Sunday announced that Jennifer Mnookin, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, will become the university’s next president, stepping into a top job that has become a focal point of national debate over student activism and how universities respond to allegations involving antisemitism.
Mnookin, 58, is scheduled to assume her new post on July 1, when she will become the fifth president at Columbia in the past four years. The appointment follows a period of leadership churn and conflict on campus that included large protests tied to the Israel-Hamas war and intensified federal scrutiny of how the university disciplines students and manages the flow of research funding.
The turmoil began in earnest after the Trump administration took aim at Columbia shortly after he took office last year, according to the AP reporting. That campaign expanded into a broader effort directed at elite universities, focusing on how they respond to protests, what students they admit, and what is taught in classrooms.
During that period, immigration enforcement agents imprisoned Columbia students who had participated in pro-Palestinian protests in 2024, the AP said. The administration also canceled $400 million in research grants at Columbia and its affiliated hospital system in the name of combating antisemitism on campus, and it threatened additional federal funding cuts.
Columbia ultimately reached a deal with the administration that included paying more than $220 million to restore research funds. The settlement also required Columbia to overhaul its student disciplinary process and to apply a federally endorsed definition of antisemitism not only in classroom teaching, but also in a disciplinary committee investigating students who have been critical of Israel.
The new leadership announcement came after earlier attempts at stabilizing the university’s presidency. Mnookin replaces Nemat Shafik, whose resignation in August 2024 came after scrutiny of his handling of campus divisions and protest-related tensions, the AP reported.
After Shafik stepped down, Columbia named Katrina Armstrong, the chief executive of the university’s medical school, as president. Armstrong resigned last March, days after Columbia agreed to the settlement outlined by the administration, and the board of trustees then appointed co-chair Claire Shipman as acting president while it searched for a permanent leader.
Before joining Wisconsin–Madison, Mnookin had served as the dean of the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law. In addition to her Wisconsin chancellorship starting in August 2022, Columbia’s announcement notes that she earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a law degree from Yale Law School, and a doctorate in history and social study of science and technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The appointment sets the next president’s term against the backdrop of unresolved questions about campus speech, disciplinary authority, and the extent of federal influence on university practices—issues that have already helped propel Columbia through repeated leadership transitions.