Claire Shipman, the acting president of Columbia University, has come under scrutiny following the release of private text messages in which she suggested removing a Jewish trustee from the university's board due to the trustee's pro-Israel advocacy and advocated for adding an Arab member to the board. These messages, dating back to January 2024 before Shipman assumed her current role, were obtained by the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce amid investigations into antisemitism on Columbia's campus. In the texts, Shipman referred to the Jewish trustee as "a fox in the henhouse" and implied she might be a "mole," comments made during a period of heightened antisemitic tensions at the university. Shipman has issued a private apology to campus leaders, describing her remarks as a "moment of immense pressure." The Anti-Defamation League has expressed concern over the comments and called for a public apology to address the hostile climate for Jewish students. Some Columbia faculty have controversially accused the Jewish trustee of leaking the texts, despite the university providing them to Congress. The controversy has drawn attention from lawmakers, including Representative Elise Stefanik, who led a letter demanding clarification from Shipman and criticized her handling of antisemitism on campus.