Columbia College Student Council sent an email to University faculty on Tuesday morning calling on them to “help hold our administrators accountable and work to foster a safe and productive environment for teaching and learning.”

The email followed University President Minouche Shafik’s decision to authorize the New York Police Department to sweep the on-campus “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” last Thursday, resulting in the arrests of over 100 protesters.

CCSC called on faculty to “ensure President Shafik and senior administrators are held accountable both to rectify the current state of affairs and to ensure that a precedent is set that prevents this from ever happening again.”

“Our community is a splintered and distressed version of its former self. Much of this can be traced to President Shafik’s actions, ” the email reads.

The email cites two potential violations of the University Statutes. The email first states that Shafik’s decision to circumvent the University Senate to suspend Columbia’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace in November bypassed established disciplinary channels and “stifled free speech on campus and deeply harmed students’ trust in administrators.”

The email then cites Shafik’s decision to authorize NYPD to enter campus and “disregard the Senate’s ‘unequivocal’ instructions to restrict NYPD from campus,” alleging that Shafik “did not act in good faith” to adhere to section 444f of the University Statutes in clearing the “extraordinarily peaceful” demonstrations.

The first of two “sets of actions” that CSSC lays out in the email asks faculty to call for the University Senate to censure Shafik. The Barnard and Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors has drafted a censure resolution it plans to submit to the senate.

The first set of actions also calls on faculty to request that the University Senate “conduct a questioning of President Dr. Shafik’s repeated exercise of unprecedented executive power and disregard for University governance” and request a formal apology from Shafik “for violating University Statutes, authorizing the arrest of students, and reaffirming her commitment to free speech.”

The CCSC email highlights the history of the University Senate as a governing body created after the 1968 protests to uphold “shared governance.”

“The University Senate has a series of Statutes that govern administrative behavior, and how University rules and policies can be created, amended and enforced,” the email reads. “Unfortunately, President Shafik and senior administration has not acted in good faith to respect faculty governance, the University Senate, and University Statutes.”

In an interview with Spectator, Rohan Mehta, CC ’25, CCSC class of 2025 vice president, who helped write the letter, explained the intent behind the first set of actions detailed in the letter.

“Being censured and being questioned in front of the Senate is really embarrassing for Shafik and for the rest of senior administration, and it really shows that they have failed to do their job well, and upset the stakeholders at this university,” Mehta said.

A second set of actions, intended to help “revitalize” the Columbia community, asks faculty to aid efforts to reverse the suspensions of students who protested last Thursday and to remove NYPD officers from campus.

The letter also includes an email template for faculty to contact administrators with and a form through which faculty can sign onto the demands of the email to “pressure Columbia through direct communication and broader media.”

“I think faculty really have the most important voice and the most powerful voice at this school,” Mehta said. “If there’s anything that can be seen from 1968, it is really the creation of the University Senate that centers, of course, student voices, but heavily faculty voices. The largest amount of seats in the senate are faculty seats.”

The email further underscores the value of shared governance and claims that Shafik has overstepped her executive power by not consulting with the senate.

“Time and time again, Dr. Shafik has impeded faculty governance and the University Statutes designed to maintain order in these very times,” the email reads. “Her decision to move classes online on Monday only underscores the consequences of her executive overreach: a total breakdown of the day-to-day operations of a University—teaching and learning. Clearly, President Shaifk does not believe she can create a safe and productive environment, and is also unwilling to follow the University’s only rules to do so.”

Mehta shared his vision of charting a path forward as the Columbia community grapples with the events of the past week.

“I just hope that we can see the senate hold Shafik accountable, and I hope that Shafik and the rest of senior administration will roll back those suspensions and grant full amnesty for all these students, remove NYPD from campus, and really show that they have messed up, issue an apology, and recommit to shared governance so we can begin to rebuild and repair the divide between students, faculty, and the senior administration,” he said.

The email details a shift in campus climate, noting that “Jewish students, Muslim students and students of color have increasingly felt unsafe and been victims of vitriol and violence.”

The email states that student groups have canceled events and students have become anxious about being surveilled, disciplined, or antagonized by media, administrators, and peers in connection to campus events.

“As a University, we have lost our mutual commitment to robust and open debate. We have lost track of our foundational principles of academic freedom and respectful dialogue,” the email reads. “We have attenuated the bonds that once united us and unleashed antagonism, eroding the collaborative spirit essential for a thriving academic environment. And perhaps most importantly and most sadly, we have lost our dedication to being in community with each other.”