Schill struck a deal with radical anti-Israel student groups to end the encampment at Northwestern, offering a list of concessions that included scholarships and teaching positions for Palestinians
Northwestern University president Michael Schill stepped down on Thursday amid the university’s protracted battle with the Trump administration, Northwestern announced in a statement.
Schill, who plans to take a sabbatical before returning to teach and conduct research at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law, acknowledged the challenges faced during his tenure, including the university’s ongoing battle with the federal government over allegations of anti-Semitism and discrimination. He will continue to lead the university until Northwestern appoints an interim president and “work with the Board of Trustees on efforts to get the University’s frozen federal funding restored.”
“I also recognize that difficult problems remain, particularly at the federal level,” Schill said in a statement. “It is critical that we continue to protect the University’s research mission and excellence while preserving academic freedom, integrity, and independence.”
“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,” he continued. “Therefore, I have decided, in consultation with the leadership of the Board of Trustees, that I will step down as President. I will remain in my role until an interim president is in place, and I will assist in his or her transition,” he added.
The announcement comes after months of negotiations with the Trump administration over the $790 million in federal funding the administration stripped in response to anti-Semitism on Northwestern’s campus. The Department of Health and Human Services launched an investigation into claims of systemic discrimination against Jewish students at Northwestern in May of this year. Additionally, the university is under a separate Department of Education civil rights probe concerning allegations of anti-Semitism and racial discrimination since March.
Schill faced significant backlash in spring 2024 over his decision to negotiate an agreement with anti-Israel encampment organizers, including members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), to dismantle their encampment in exchange for a list of concessions. The deal included commitments to hire two Palestinian professors and offer full scholarships to five students from Gaza. One such professor appointed in fall 2024, Mkhaimar Abusada, serves on the boards of two organizations—the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)—that regularly partner with Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Washington Free Beacon previously reported. Though both present themselves as human rights groups, ICHR has praised Hamas and met with its leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, while PCHR has PFLP members on its payroll, including one in a leadership role.
Northwestern’s SJP chapter did not tone down its radicalism after striking a deal with Schill. The student group hosted an anarchist training session earlier this year that featured two pamphlets with propaganda from the PFLP terror group. One pamphlet from Unity of Fields, a self-described “militant front against the US-NATO-zionist axis of imperialism” that has vowed to bring violence to America, quoted a PFLP leader and called on students to “build an Intifada” in order to “destroy amerika [sic].” Another, which the SJP chapter created itself, featured a PFLP cartoon on the cover and encouraged students to “channel [their] anger” and “aid in the fight” against Israel.
Northwestern’s announcement states that Schill “dealt with unrest on campus” after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, claiming that “in the months after the attack, the University updated its policies to curb antisemitism on its campuses, resulting in a dramatic decrease in the number of reported incidents.” Significant incidents have continued to plague the school in spite of the updated policies. About a week and a half after the SJP chapter’s anarchist training session, anti-Semitic vandals at the university used red paint to write “Death to Israel” and draw Hamas triangles on Kresge Centennial Hall—a campus building that houses the school’s Holocaust center—during Passover, the Free Beacon reported at the time.
The school has also implemented mandatory anti-discrimination training, but the course relies on unverified data from the Council on American-Islamic Relations that inflates numbers of Islamophobic attacks, the Free Beacon previously reported. The training ultimately gives the false impression that anti-Muslim hate crimes vastly outpace those against Jews.
Schill’s resignation also followed a settlement Northwestern reached with former football coach Pat Fitzgerald, whom Schill dismissed in summer 2023 amid a hazing scandal. Fitzgerald sued the university for $130 million, and Northwestern admitted at the time of the settlement that the former coach was not involved in or aware of any hazing that took place.
While Schill’s decisionmaking as Northwestern president cost the university $790 million in federal funding and an undisclosed sum in the Fitzgerald settlement, the financial toll of his time atop the school’s administration did not end there.
Northwestern has ramped up its lobbying efforts since the anti-Semitism investigations into the university began, with expenditures ballooning to $1,383,000 during the first two quarters of this year, lobbying disclosures reviewed by the Free Beacon show.
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