Columbia President Claire Shipman Privately Said School Needed To Add an ‘Arab’ Board Member—and Remove a Jewish One
1st July 2025
Before she became the acting president of Columbia University, Claire 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.”