Before she became the acting president of Columbia University, Claire Shipman wrote a private text urging the dismissal of Shoshana Shendelman, a Jewish member of the university’s board of trustees who is the most active pro-Israel member on the board. She also wrote that the university urgently needs to somehow “get somebody from the Middle East or who is Arab on our board.” The texts were quoted in a letter sent by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to Shipman, asking her to clarify the messages that “appear to downplay and even mock the pervasive culture of antisemitism on Columbia’s campus.” “These exchanges raise the question of why you appeared to be in favor of removing one of the board’s most outspoken Jewish advocates at a time when Columbia students were facing a shocking level of fear and hostility,” the letter to Shipman, written by Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), chairman of the committee, and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), stated. Regarding her text about needing “an Arab member on the board,” the letter states that the message “raises troubling questions regarding Columbia’s priorities just months after the October 7th attack, which was the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.” “Were Columbia to … appoint someone to the board specifically because of their national origin, it would implicate Title VI concerns.” The letter quoted another text in which Shipman referred to congressional oversight on antisemitism efforts as “Capitol Hill nonsense.” Walberg and Stefanik wrote that Shipman’s message is “disturbing given Congress’s role in conducting oversight to ensure universities are fulfilling their obligations to protect Jewish students.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)