Acting Columbia President Claire Shipman Reportedly Apologizes for Urging Ouster of Jewish Trustee

Columbia University interim president Claire Shipman has reportedly apologized for urging the ouster of a Jewish member of the university’s board of trustees and the recruitment of “an Arab” board member during the 2023-2024 academic year, a time when the school was being rocked by a rise in antisemitic incidents and militant anti-Israel activism on the campus.

At the time, Shipman served as the co-chair of Columbia’s board of trustees, a position which afforded her large influence over the direction of the university.

As first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, Shipman disparaged Jewish trustee Shoshana Shendelman, an outspoken critic of campus antisemitism, as “extraordinarily unhelpful” and a “mole” in a series of texts to board vice-chair Wanda Holland Greene and other colleagues.

“We need to get somebody from the middle east [sic] or who is Arab on our board,” wrote Shipman, who was selected in March to be the university’s fourth president since 2023. Later, in reprising her disapproval of Shendelman, she said, “I just don’t think she should be on the board.”

Following backlash prompted by the public exposure of her tart remarks, Shipman apologized on Wednesday in an email to colleagues obtained by Jewish Insider.

“The things I said in a moment of frustration and stress were wrong,” Shipman wrote, according to the outlet. “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. I should not have written those things, and I am  sorry. It was a moment of immense pressure, over a year and a half ago, as we navigated some deeply turbulent times. But that doesn’t change the fact that I made a mistake. I promise to do better.”

Lenny Gold, producer of the campus antisemitism documentary “Blind Spot” called for Shipman’s resignation in a statement to The Algemeiner.

“It’s a sad, sobering reminder of the pervasiveness of the evil of indifference and ignorance at the highest levels of academia regarding the antisemitism faced by so many Jewish students on American campuses today, and how far we still must go to eradicate a prejudice that was unthinkable here not that long ago,” Gold said. “Shame on Ms. Shipman and Columbia if she doesn’t resign now. There must be consequences for this behavior, as I assume there would be if it was aimed at any other group (or the member of any other group) protected by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

Shipman “was right to apologize,” said Jonathan Schulman, executive director of The Jewish Majority, a nonprofit which studies the Jewish experience in the US.

“Columbia University has a large, proudly pro-Israel Jewish student and alumni base,” Schulman told The Algemeiner. “Referring to a board member who reflects those values as a ‘mole,’ on the very same day that students could hear chants of ‘Long live the intifada,’ on campus, demonstrates a staggering insensitivity.”

Shipman’s controversial comments “reflect communications from more than a year ago,” said a Columbia University spokesperson in a statement. “They are now being published out of context and reflect a particularly difficult moment in time for the University when leaders across Columbia were intensely focused on addressing significant challenges. This work is ongoing, and to be clear: Columbia is deeply committed to combating antisemitism and working with the federal government on this very serious issue, including our ongoing discussions to reach an agreement with the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. Acting President Claire Shipman has been vocally and visibly committed to eradicating antisemitism on campus;  the work underway at the university to create a safe and welcoming environment for all community members makes that plain.”

Last month, Columbia University’s Task Force on Antisemitism released a “campus climate” survey which found that Jewish students remain exceedingly uncomfortable attending the institution.

According to its results, 53 percent of Jewish students said they have been subjected to discrimination because of being Jewish, while another 53 percent reported that their friendships are “strained” because of how overwhelmingly anti-Zionist the student culture is. Meanwhile, 29 percent of Jewish students said they have “lost close friends,” and 59 percent, nearly two-thirds, of Jewish students sensed that they would be better off by electing to “conform their political beliefs” to those of their classmates.

Nearly 62 percent of Jewish students reported “a low feeling of acceptance at Columbia on the basis of their religious identity,” and 50 percent said that the pro-Hamas encampments which capped off the 2023-2024 academic year had an “impact” on their daily routines. Also, Jewish Columbia students are more likely than their peers to report these negative feelings and experiences.

Columbia University also recently settled a lawsuit brought by a Jewish student at the School of Social Work who accused faculty of unrelenting antisemitic bullying and harassment.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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