The Washington Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium shines a spotlight on Columbia University acting president Claire Shipman. As a member of the board in 2024, Shipman argued that the school needed to get an “Arab on our board” and suggested that a Jewish trustee should be removed over her pro-Israel advocacy, according to text messages obtained by the House Committee on Education and Workforce. “We need to get somebody from the middle east [sic] or who is Arab on our board,” Shipman, then the co-chair of Columbia’s board of trustees, wrote in a message on January 17, 2024. “Quickly I think. Somehow.”
The messages are quoted in a congressional letter sent to Shipman yesterday. The letter is posted online here.
Get an Arab. Ditch the Jew. Give her credit for concision.
Columbia provided a statement to Sibarium:
“These communications were provided to the Committee in the fall of 2024 and reflect communications from more than a year ago,” the school said. “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.”
Sibarium drily adds: “Columbia declined to provide additional context for the messages on the record.”
We’ve written voluminously about Columbia over the past few years. Our posts are compiled here. Suffice it to say that Columbia has fallen into a zone somewhere beyond disgrace. Like the old lady in the advertisement, she has fallen down and can’t get up.
