Northwestern President to Step Down

Following more than a year of scrutiny from Republicans over how Northwestern University handled pro-Palestinian campus protests last year as well as a months-long federal funding freeze, President Michael Schill plans to step down.

Schill, who has been president since 2022, announced his departure Thursday.

“Over the past three years, it has been my profound honor to serve as president of Northwestern University,” Schill wrote in a message to the campus community. “In that time, our community has made significant progress while simultaneously facing extraordinary challenges. Together, we have made decisions that strengthened the institution and helped safeguard its future.”

Schill’s exit marks an end to a tumultuous tenure at Northwestern.

The wealthy private institution in Illinois has weathered attacks from congressional Republicans over a deal Schill struck with pro-Palestinian campus protesters who set up an encampment on university grounds. Congress hauled Schill in for a hearing on antisemitism in May 2024 over his agreement with the protesters. Schill agreed to provide more insight and input into university investment decisions, amid demands to divest from companies attached to the Israeli war effort. He also promised more support for Palestinian students and faculty, among other concessions.

(However, Northwestern has not provided the level of endowment transparency it promised.)

The president defended the deal before Congress. Schill, who appeared alongside the leaders of Rutgers University and the University of California, Los Angeles, was the main target for congressional Republicans, but he stood his ground—batting away hypothetical questions and refusing to discuss the conduct of individual faculty members.

Still, accusations that Northwestern mishandled antisemitism have continued to dog Schill since, and the Trump administration launched an investigation into alleged civil rights violations and later froze $790 million in federal research funding at the university, which led to deep job cuts this summer.

Schill and other Northwestern leaders said in July that they were working to restore the research funding and were “hopeful it will happen soon.”

Faculty members and other critics also raised concerns about actions taken by Northwestern under his leadership. Steven Thrasher, a journalism professor involved in pro-Palestinian protests on campus, alleged in March that Northwestern denied him tenure for his activism.

Schill also navigated turmoil in athletics when a whistleblower alleged in late 2002 that hazing was allowed to run unchecked in the football program. Schill briefly suspended and later fired Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald and a subordinate. The coach sued Northwestern for wrongful termination in 2023; the two parties reached an undisclosed settlement last month.

“As I reflect on the progress we have made and what lies ahead, I believe now is the right time for new leadership to guide Northwestern into its next chapter,” Schill said Wednesday.

Schill will remain in his role until an interim president steps into the job.

Schill’s pending exit now means only one of seven campus leaders who were called to testify in congressional hearings on campus antisemitism in late 2023 and 2024 still has her job. Leaders at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, UCLA, Rutgers and now Northwestern stepped down within a year of the hearings. (Then–UCLA chancellor Gene Block was already set to retire.) Only Sally Kornbluth at Massachusetts Institute of Technology remains in her job.

Conservatives Celebrate

Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican who emerged as one of the more aggressive inquisitors in prior campus antisemitism hearings, praised the news on social media as “LONG overdue.”

The White House also welcomed Schill’s resignation in an emailed statement.

“The Trump Administration looks forward to working with the new leadership, and we hope they seize this opportunity to Make Northwestern Great Again,” spokesperson Liz Huston wrote.

Likewise, Rep. Tim Walberg, the Michigan Republican who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, said Schill “will leave behind a legacy of not only failing to deter antisemitism on campus but worsening it.”

Schill sat for an interview Aug. 5 with the Walberg’s committee, which has been investigating antisemitism at Northwestern. The panel released the transcript Thursday evening with the names of the committee staff redacted. 

The interview touched on many of the same topics as the congressional hearing, from the university’s relationship with Qatar, where it has a campus, to Schill’s decision to negotiate with students. Staff for the majority homed in on whether students and faculty were disciplined and took issue with data provided by Northwestern that apparently showed no students involved in the encampment were disciplined.

Schill did detail several changes that Northwestern has made to address campus antisemitism, from a new required training to new policies that govern campus demonstrations and the university’s response to complaints about antisemitic harassment.

A staffer for the majority pressed Schill on whether Northwestern had fulfilled its obligations to Jewish students under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. (Title VI bars discrimination based on race and national origin, which the government has said includes antisemitism.)

Schill said university staff did the best they could under the circumstances.

“Did we make the right decision at every moment? I’m not going to say that,” he added. “But were we always concerned about the welfare of our Jewish students? Yes. Were we always concerned about the safety of our Jewish students, the safety of our police and the safety of the other students who were there? Yes.”