Northwestern University President Michael Schill announces resignation
Northwestern University President Michael Schill announced Thursday that he is resigning, after a three-year tenure marked by campus protests and funding cuts from the Trump administration that prompted a hiring freeze and hundreds of layoffs.
"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 in a message on the university's website. "Therefore, I have decided, in consultation with the leadership of the Board of Trustees, that I will step down as President."
Schill will stay on board until the school's board of trustees names an interim replacement to ensure a smooth transition. After stepping down, he will take a sabbatical before returning to Northwestern Pritzker School of Law to teach and conduct research.
He also said he will continue to work with the board in their efforts to fight to restore federal funding that was frozen by the Trump administration.
"I also recognize that difficult problems remain, particularly at the federal level. It is critical that we continue to protect the University's research mission and excellence while preserving academic freedom, integrity, and independence," Schill wrote.
Last year, Schill testified before Congress at hearings about antisemitism on college campuses, and he defended the school's negotiated end to a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on campus.
Schill has noted that in reaching an agreement to take down the encampment, Northwestern flatly denied protesters' demands that the university divest from companies with ties to Israel, and end an academic program that focused on Israeli innovation.
"We did not give in to any of the protesters' demands, and the commitments we made are consistent with our values," Schill said.
The committee's chairwoman, Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, chastised Schilll and the presidents of two other prominent universities – Rutgers and UCLA – for how they handled demonstrations on their campuses against the war in Gaza.
She specifically criticized Northwestern for negotiating with demonstrators whose views she called "antisemitic."
"Mr. Schill, you cut a disgraceful deal with the encampment that prompted seven Jewish members of your own antisemitism advisory committee to resign in protest," Foxx said.
Schill, who said he is a Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors, defended the negotiated end to the protest encampnent, rather than have police forcibly remove the protesters.
"The police solution was not going to be available to us to keep people safe, and also may not be the wisest solution as we've seen at other campuses across the country," Schill said.
Negotiating with the protesters, Schill said, allowed Northwestern to defuse the situation peacefully without conceding to their demands to sever the university's business ties with Israel.
Weeks before his testimony to Congress last year, three Northwestern students filed a lawsuit against the university, accusing administrators of enabling the harassment of Jewish students by pro-Palestinian protesters.
This past April, the Trump administration froze $790 million in federal funding at Northwestern. The freeze affected grants from agencies like defense, agriculture, and health and human services.
Northwestern was one of several universities subjected to what the Department of Education calls "explosions of antisemitism" on college campuses in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. The initial report cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which protects individuals from discrimination based on national origin and applies to schools and institutions of higher learning that receive federal funding.
In May, the Trump administration opened an investigation into Northwestern for alleged discrimination against Jewish students.
The Trump administration has accused Northwestern and other elite universities – including Harvard and Columbia – of failing to protect Jewish students from acts of antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, and the Israeli military response in Gaza.
Following the federal funding freeze, the university in June announced a hiring freeze, and other reductions to administrative and academic budgets. In July, more than 400 staff positions were eliminated at the university.
PhD students at Northwestern said the federal funding freeze under the Trump administration has impacted their work in the classroom, especially when it comes to experimental research.
"This has been affecting the campus, both campuses, and it's been really impactful on all of our research progress; and just as a graduate student, it's been really challenging to try to keep pushing projects forward when there's no funding to be able to do that anymore," PhD student Jack Sumner said.
"I guess especially as a PhD student, funding cuts has definitely been an anxiety that I have had. And I imagine that a lot of people that have been here longer have also felt, and I imagine that with these cuts, if there was a lot of … displeasure with the fact that a people are not secure in their funding, especially for PhD students, that that would have been a significant reason as to why they could have resigned," PhD student Mekhi Williams said.
Last month, a group of faculty at Northwestern wrote an open letter to school leadership, asking them not to make a deal with President Trump regarding the frozen funding.
In the letter, the Northwestern Concerned Faculty Group said they believe the school will be "pressured to reach a 'deal' with the Trump administration" to release the funds.
"We call on Northwestern's leadership to resist the administration's attack on fundamental democratic principles by refusing to 'make a deal' with the administration," the faculty wrote. "Acquiescence to the administration's tactics would make Northwestern complicit in an assault on higher education, which is an essential bulwark of civil society."
The letter came days after Columbia University in New York City reached a $200 million settlement with the Trump administration to be paid over three years, along with an additional $21 million to settle investigations from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The settlement restores $400 million in federal grants that the Trump administration has been withholding since March.