Claire Shipman: The award -winning reporter takes rudder at Columbia as the campus crisis deepens
Claire Shipman, a graduate journalist and graduate of Columbia University, was elected president of the Ivy League Institute following the sudden resignation of Dr Katrina Armstrong in the midst of increasing political pressure and financial turmoil.
On Friday evening, the approved appointment of David Greenwald, the chairman of the Board of Trustees, is approved by a campus-wide e-mail, pointing to Columbia’s third leadership change in less than a year. Shipman, who has been the co -chairman of the Board of Trumps since 2023, is playing an important time for the university, which is under intensive examination of Trump administration.
Leadership change in the midst of federal pressure
The separation of Armstrong comes only days after Columbia accepts a list of demands from the federal government for a potential restoration of approximately £ 320 million ($ 400 million) in suspended financing. Accordingly New York TimesIn order to combat anti -Semitism, the common duty force continued to be suspended by the university’s alleged anti -Semitic harassment.
Columbia’s concessions were increasing the increasing campus security presence, giving officers to arrest authority, adopting an official definition of anti -Semitism, and administrative surveillance on academic departments such as the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.
In a statement published by the university’s Public Relations Office, Shipman said that he had taken the rudder with a determined commitment to advance our duties, to implement the necessary reforms, to protect our students and to support academic freedom and open investigation.
A journalist with deep columbia roots
Accordingly Columbia Daily SpectatorShipman graduated from Columbia College in 1986 and the coex is one of the first women to do so after studying together. Later, Columbia received a master’s degree from International and Public Relations School in the field of International Relations.
Sherpman began his journalism career at CNN and reported from Moscow during the collapse of the Soviet Union. The scope won the Ağa Peabody award and provided special interviews with Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. Later, in 1989, he was honored with two Dupont-Columbia awards for the Tiananmen Square protests and his reports on Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
After his time at CNN, Shipman served as a White House correspondent for NBC News and then joined ABC’s Good morning America As a senior national reporter. During his 15 -year career in broadcast journalism, he reports on global politics, social movements and major international crises.
A controversial but talented successor
Sherpman has long joined Columbia’s governance and has joined the Board of Trustees in 2013. The 2023 presidential search committee played a central role in the Gaza Solidarity Camp protests that chose Minauche Shafik, who resigned under pressure. Armstrong succeeded in Shafik at a temporary capacity in August 2024 before taking a step this week.
Although Shipman’s appointment was welcomed by many people in the university, it was not indisputable. Activist groups criticized their ties Pro -Israeli lobbySenator Marco Rubio and representative Grace Meng, including several high -profile deputies, interviewed the 2018 AIPAC conference.
Campus tensions called for the continuation of the protests and the disposal of the university from companies related to Israel. Columbia President Shafik said that the university would not disposal before and would increase the opposition from student groups.
Witnesses before and before the Congress
Shipman’s leadership was seen in April 2024 when he joined the university officials at Capitol Hill to testify in front of the Assembly Education Committee and the labor force. Referring to the increasing concerns about anti -Semitism on campus, ‘I am angry with the despicable feelings I continue to hear … We hold them responsible.’ He also accepted the experiences of Muslim students by saying that their stories were ‘heartbreaking’.
In his testimony, Shipman reiterated the mission of the university: ‘Columbia changed my life … Universities aim to teach students how to think, not what to think; challenge and expand – scare and terrorize. ‘
His commitment to Columbia was recognized by the John Jay Professional Achievement Award and numerous awards, including the Alexander Hamilton medal – the highest dignity for Columbia College graduates.
Apart from the Academy, Shipman is also the best -selling writer. He wrote together Confidence code He is a minority investor at Washington Spirit, a professional female football club with BBC World News America presenter Katty Kay. President Barack Obama, former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Columbia graduate.
Shipman faces a complex and high -risk challenge, as it leads to one of the most politically studied institutions in American higher education. Tim Walberg, the President of the Assembly Education Committee, said: ‘Mrs. Shipman will follow you good success, we will watch it closely.’
