Columbia University’s interim president Claire Shipman apologizes privately after leaked texts show her targeting a Jewish trustee for pro-Israel views and calling for an Arab board member.
Columbia University’s interim president, Claire Shipman, has privately apologized for a series of leaked text messages in which she proposed removing a Jewish trustee over her pro-Israel stance and called for the addition of an Arab board member.
The messages, revealed by the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday and obtained by the House Committee on Education and Workforce, show Shipman criticizing trustee Shoshana Shendelman, a vocal advocate against campus antisemitism.
“I just don’t think she should be on the board,” Shipman wrote in January 2024. Later texts described Shendelman as “fishing for information” and questioned her loyalty.
In a note sent to about a dozen colleagues and donors and quoted by the Free Beacon, Shipman called her comments “wrong,” writing, “The things I said in a moment of frustration and stress were wrong. They do not reflect how I feel. I have apologized directly to the person named in my texts, and I am apologizing now to you.”
“I have tremendous respect and appreciation for that board member, whose voice on behalf of Columbia’s Jewish community is critically important,” she added.
Ari Shrage, founder of the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association, called for Shipman’s resignation. “Her lack of empathy and disregard for a board member concerned with student safety … makes her not fit to serve,” he stated.
Columbia declined to comment.
The controversy comes as Columbia University navigates fallout from a $400 million funding cut by the Trump administration over concerns of antisemitism.
Weeks after the Trump administration announced the funding cut to Columbia, the university announced a series of reforms, including placing the university’s Middle East studies department under new oversight, revising protest and student discipline policies, and adopting a new definition of antisemitism.
Columbia also pledged to promote “intellectual diversity” by expanding its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.
After the university rolled out the changes, US Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Columbia was “on the right track,” though she declined to commit to a timeline for restoring the federal funding.
Shipman was appointed Columbia University’s acting president following the resignation of Katrina Armstrong as interim president, following backlash over her testimony to a White House antisemitism task force and rising campus tensions linked to antisemitic incidents.
During her testimony, Armstrong to recall any specific antisemitic incidents on campus – despite their documentation in Columbia’s own antisemitism report.
Armstrong herself was a temporary appointment, having replaced former President Minouche Shafik, who resigned following allegations of her mishandling of antisemitism on campus.
