Columbia’s New President Dismisses Antisemitism Hearings as Nonsense

Columbia University just replaced one failed leader with another. Claire Shipman, a former CNN correspondent and now interim president of the Ivy League institution, made it crystal clear where she stands mocking Congressional hearings on campus antisemitism as nothing more than “Capitol Hill nonsense.”

Shipman, who previously co-chaired Columbia’s board of trustees, steps into her new role after the resignation of Katrina Armstrong, who couldn’t weather the storm from the Trump administration’s crackdown on the university’s permissive attitude toward antisemitic hate. Her replacement, however, appears no more serious about fixing the rot inside Columbia.

Back in December 2023, during a time of widespread antisemitic protests on college campuses including violent, pro-Hamas demonstrations Shipman dismissed the entire investigation as political noise. In a message to then-president Minouche Shafik, she wrote, “I do think we should think about unsuspending the [banned student] groups before semester starts to take the wind out of that.”

Let’s break that down:

• Shipman referred to Congressional hearings on antisemitism as “Capitol Hill nonsense.”

• She pushed to reinstate student groups that had participated in illegal campus takeovers and property damage during pro-Hamas protests.

• Her comments surfaced in an October report from the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

All this, while Columbia remains locked in a fight to recover $400 million in taxpayer funding that the Trump administration yanked in response to the university’s abysmal handling of antisemitism on campus.

To recap, Columbia not only failed to protect its Jewish students but is now doubling down by elevating someone who actively downplayed legitimate concerns. It’s no coincidence that under Armstrong, when Columbia finally agreed to policy reforms, faculty and activist groups erupted furious that even minimal accountability was being enforced.

Now, with Shipman at the helm, Columbia is signaling it’s back to business as usual: appeasement, denial, and elite arrogance.

If this is the kind of leadership Ivy League institutions think will restore trust, they’re more out of touch than ever.

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