Columbia University President Minouche Shafik is stepping down months after protests over the Israel-Hamas war gripped the campus, Shafik announced in a letter sent Wednesday to the Columbia community.

Shafik — an Egyptian-born economist and former high-ranking official at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Bank of England, and former president of the London School of Economics — has faced pressure for her handling of Columbia campus encampments protesting the war between Israel and Hamas.

Shafik in her letter cited progress during her tenure but said it has “also been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.”

“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” Shafik said in the letter. “Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.”

Pressure was building for Shafik to step down after months of student-led demonstrations at the school’s New York campus that spread to colleges across the country. Shafik came under criticism after authorizing arrests on campus and for her testimony to the House Education Committee over the university’s handling of antisemitism.

“I have tried to navigate a path that upholds academic principles and treats everyone with fairness and compassion. It has been distressing—for the community, for me as president and on a personal level—to find myself, colleagues, and students the subject of threats and abuse,” Shafik said.

The Ivy League listed Katrina Armstrong as interim president, according to the university’s website. Armstrong, a doctor of medicine, has served as executive vice president for the health and biomedical sciences department at Columbia and chief executive officer of the medical campus.

Shafik says she’ll be working with Armstrong “to ensure an orderly transition.”

“Even as tension, division, and politicization have disrupted our campus over the last year, our core mission and values endure and will continue to guide us in meeting the challenges ahead,” Shafik’s letter said.