Columbia University’s acting president, Claire Shipman, has apologized for a series of private text messages from 2023-24 in which she proposed adding “an Arab” to the school’s board of trustees and suggested removing Shoshana Shendelman, a Jewish trustee known for her pro-Israel advocacy. In one Jan. 17 2024 exchange, Shipman wrote that the board “need[ed] to get somebody from the Middle East or who is Arab … quickly.” A week later she called Shendelman “extraordinarily unhelpful” and said, “I just don’t think she should be on the board.” The messages were included in a letter released Tuesday by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which is examining whether Columbia is violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to protect Jewish students. Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) asked the university to explain the remarks, warning that board appointments based on national origin could raise civil-rights issues. The lawmakers also cited other messages in which Shipman referred to a Jewish trustee as “a fox in the henhouse” and described congressional oversight as “capital hill nonsense.” Columbia responded that the excerpts were taken out of context during a “particularly difficult moment” for the school. In a 2 July private email to campus leaders, Shipman said the texts were written “in a moment of frustration and stress” and “do not reflect how I feel,” adding that she had apologized directly to Shendelman. The disclosures deepen scrutiny of Columbia’s handling of antisemitism, which has already led the Trump administration to suspend roughly $400 million in federal grants and contracts and prompted campus-wide policy changes aimed at curbing harassment.