Sharon Otterman
New York Times
In May 2024, a pro-Palestinian encampment formed on a campus lawn at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. When the students refused to leave, Jennifer Mnookin, who was then the chancellor of the flagship state university, called in the police to remove their tents. Thirty-four people were arrested. But after the students set up their tents again, Dr. Mnookin pivoted. She decided “there were limits to the extent of policing that I was prepared to authorize,” she said, and spent the next nine days negotiating with the students.
Her confidence in handling that potential tinderbox, and others like it, impressed the trustees of Columbia University, who appointed Dr. Mnookin to be the 21st president, a role she starts on Wednesday. It is also emblematic of the deliberative leadership style she will seek to pursue at Columbia, she said in a wide-ranging interview last week.
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