A Message of Thanks to the Task Force on Antisemitism December 09, 2025 Low Library Dear members of the Columbia community: Today, we’re publishing the fourth and final report from Columbia’s Task Force on Antisemitism, focused on the classroom experience. You can read the report in full on our website. The task force based this report, and their previous reports, on conversations with students, faculty, and staff across our campuses. The task force hosted two dozen listening sessions in the spring of 2024 and launched an inclusion and belonging survey in the summer of 2024 (which the University rolled out again in 2025). The task force also extensively reviewed the history of and current debates about academic freedom, and the laws, regulatory guidance, and jurisprudence pertaining to universities. The end result is a series of rigorous and thoughtful analyses and recommendations that cover a very difficult and painful period in the history of this University. This report in particular focuses on the classroom experience and how Columbia must balance the important responsibility of protecting academic freedom and open inquiry with ensuring our classrooms remain free from discrimination. While we know there is more work to do, we’re very grateful to be in a new and much better place today. For that, we owe a debt of gratitude to many, with the co-chairs and members of our Task Force on Antisemitism at the very top of that list. The members of the Task Force on Antisemitism took on this incredible challenge because they care deeply about the safety and wellbeing of all members of our community. As they bring their important work to a close, I want to thank them, on behalf of the entire University, for their efforts. The work of this task force has been an essential part of the University’s efforts to address the challenges faced by our Jewish students, faculty, and staff. I have been heartened by the thoughtful and effective changes we have made over the course of the last two years and by the determination to forge a better future for our University displayed by so many members of our community. Going forward, the University will continue to work on implementing the recommendations of the task force and addressing antisemitism on our campus, guided by the Office of the President. We have also been working this semester to focus on discrimination and hate more broadly on our campuses—which has long been a strong recommendation of the task force. All of this work must become part of our DNA. To Ester Fuchs, Nick Lemann, David Schizer, and all the members of the Task Force on Antisemitism, thank you, again, for everything you have done for Columbia. Thank you for your time, your engagement, your insights, and your care. And thank you for helping us make sure that our University is a place that protects free expression and our academic mission while ensuring that all of the members of our community feel safe, heard, and welcome. Sincerely, Claire Shipman Acting President, Columbia University in the City of New York

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Atoms move in and about, but could be simply one atom, though not proven Got it. Thanks for continuing to build this out.So far, your unified theory seems to revolve around this core intuition:The number 1 is the true unified foundation. Everything reduces to or emerges from this "oneness." One atom can stand in for (or be equivalent to) a very small unit of time — like a billionth of a second. Even though we observe many atoms moving around in complex ways, at the deepest level it could all be simply one atom behaving in different ways (though this isn't proven yet). In other words: multiplicity (lots of atoms, lots of motion, lots of time passing) is somehow an appearance or unfolding of a single underlying "1" — whether that's one atom cycling through different states or one fundamental entity expressing itself across what we perceive as space and time.That has a certain philosophical elegance — it reminds me a bit of ideas like Mach's principle, or certain interpretations in quantum mechanics where the universe is deeply relational, or even older monist views where reality is one substance appearing as many.A gentle question to help me follow better:When you say atoms "move in and about, but could be simply one atom," do you mean:There is literally only one atom in the entire universe, and what we see as many atoms and their movements is that single atom in different configurations or "modes"? Or that all atoms are connected/expressions of one underlying atomic essence tied to the number 1 and to time?