Former Wharton professor Nemat “Minouche” Shafik was inaugurated as Columbia University's 20th president on Tuesday amidst protests from hundreds of students.
Shafik served as a visiting associate professor at the Wharton School from January to June 1996 and now assumes the role of the first female president at Columbia. During the inauguration, students in white coats gathered on College Walk to protest Columbia's lack of response to the sexual abuse of patients by former gynecologist Robert Hadden, the Columbia Daily Spectator reported.
The demonstration from the protesters was to show support for the survivors and urge the university to take better precautions to protect its patients, according to ABC7 New York. The protestors consisted of Columbia medical students and survivors who wanted Shafik to notify former patients of Hadden’s sexual abuse before the Adult Survivors Act window for approval closes this November.
Many protesters held up papers stating, “Columbia Protected A Predator OBGYN For 25 years,” urging Shafik to end the university’s coverup.
Before her inauguration, Shafik and Columbia University Irving Medical Center CEO Katrina Armstrong wrote a statement with “deepest apologies” to Hadden's survivors. Two survivors refuted this statement, stating Shafik and Armstrong’s statement comes from “a place of self-preservation,” Spectator reported.
The statement was released after ProPublica and New York Magazine published an investigation into Hadden's history of abuse, which contained statements from survivors as well as voicemails, photos, and interviews.
When Shafik was first announced as the next president of Columbia on Jan. 18, Columbia University’s board of trustees statement said Shafik was a “perfect candidate.”
They wrote that what set Shafik apart was her confidence that higher education plays in creating solutions for “the world’s most complex problems.”
Shafik was met with a lawsuit from more than 300 sexual abuse victims on Oct. 2, according to NYTV.
The law firm representing the victims, DiPietro Law Firm, said, “We believe Columbia is avoiding notifying former patients in an effort to try and run out the clock, and avoid accountability.”
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