When the Washington Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium reported that Columbia University acting president Claire Shipman had agitated to ditch the Jewish pro-Israel member of the Columbia board and add an Arab, Columbia issued a statement claiming that Shipman’s deep thoughts had been taken out of context:
“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.”
Columbia declined a request to clarify the “context” on the record, but I can. Columbia was seeking to mollify the pro-Hamas crowd on campus.
Yesterday Shipman sent out a widely distributed apology. The Free Beacon’s Collin Anderson covers it here. Collin reports:
“Let me be clear: The things I said in a moment of frustration and stress were wrong,” Shipman wrote. “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 continued. “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.”
Shipman said the “conclusions drawn in headlines” about her messages were “off base and misleading.” She did not, however, argue that the messages were “published out of context,” a charge Columbia leveled in a statement sent to the Free Beacon on Tuesday.
The editors of the Free Beacon add more “context” in a hot editorial. On the substance of Shipman’s apology, John Podhoretz speaks for me. When it comes to Columbia, I think of Rome’s approach to Carthage, metaphorically speaking.
It is a test: Are you or are you not disgusted by what Claire Shipman did and by the apology in which she said what did she did she didn’t mean and anyway she was under a lot of pressure and she’ll do better in the future because there will be no pressure in the future I guess
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) July 2, 2025
