Jones is stepping down as president of Union Theological Seminary after 18 years. Her tenure has been defined by difficult, sometimes unpopular decisions that helped stabilize the institution even as mainline Protestantism declines.
Over the past nine months, student-led encampments popped up at universities across the country. For many students, multi-religious programming at the encampments became unexpected sites for religious connection.
Union, a private, ecumenical school that serves as Columbia University’s faculty of theology but maintains a separate endowment, is the first U.S. institute of higher education known to divest from the war in Gaza.