The cowardice of Columbia University's president Minouche Shafik.

Columbia University’s campus in New York City last May.

Upon hearing the news last night that Columbia University president Minouche Shafik has resigned, I quietly cheered.

True. Shafik had come under fire by some Republicans in Congress for not coming down hard enough on demonstrations at Columbia.

Columbia students had lit a fire that spread to over 500 campuses across the country.

But rather than taking a stand in support of free speech, Shafik folded like a cheap suit.

Remaining as Columbia’s president was impossible as she pissed off both faculty and students and couldn’t possibly satisfy MAGAs in Congress.

Shafik's term of 13 months and 13 days is the shortest tenure of a Columbia University president since 1801.

Shafik’s appearance before congressional interrogators followed the same script as the appearance of the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and MIT.

Both the presidents of Harvard and UPenn later resigned.

So when Shafik showed up in Washington she promised to punish students and faculty.

She had already suspended two pro-Palestine groups, Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine.

Then the day after the hearing, Shafik called police to campus to disband peaceful protesters who had set up an encampment on Columbia's campus and more than 100 people were arrested.

Rather than being discouraged, protesting students set up tent encampments and Hamilton Hall was occupied by student protesters.

Hamilton Hall has long been a site for student protests and occupations.

Part of some estimated 300 students at Columbia University are shown milling around Hamilton Hall on the campus in New York, April 24, 1968. (AP Photo/Jacob Harris, File)

Shafik again sent the NYPD in to make mass arrests.

Shafik dragged out that old BS about “outside agitators” who wielded “industrial bike chains.”

Although that thing about industrial bike chains was actually new to me.

The action by Shafik won her a vote of no confidence from Columbia's chapter of the American Association of University Professors. 

Her attempt to kill the protests did nothing to mollify the MAGAs in congress.

And it sealed her fate.