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Farewell, Michael Schill, As Another University President Bites the Dust

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Well-known
Northwestern University president Michael Schill announced his resignation on Wednesday, saying in a statement that "now is the right time for new leadership to guide Northwestern into its next chapter."

That is certainly true. Schill’s departure clears the way for the elevation of a leader committed to ensuring Northwestern’s Jewish students receive the safe learning environment to which they are entitled.

Schill’s record speaks for itself. He was the first university president to strike a deal with student radicals who took over parts of campus after Oct. 7, rewarding them for their disruptions. As a part of that deal, Northwestern hired a Palestinian professor who sits on the board of a Gaza-based organization tied to Hamas.

Schill was less supine when it came to Northwestern’s beloved football coach, Pat Fitzgerald, whom he summarily fired in 2023, accusing him of complicity in a rotten culture that included hazing. Fitzgerald in turn sued the school for $130 million. That wrongful termination lawsuit was settled in late August. We are reliably informed that Fitzgerald walked away flush and Northwestern cleared his name.

Not satisfied with beclowning himself in Evanston, Schill trekked to Capitol Hill and did it again in 2024. Pressed on Northwestern’s satellite campus in Qatar, underwritten by hundreds of millions of dollars from the Hamas-allied Qatari regime—and, in particular, its formal partnership with Al Jazeera, the regime-funded propaganda outlet—Schill told lawmakers he "just found out about that last week."

 

Northwestern's Contract With Qatar Forbids School From Criticizing Regime​

Northwestern University's contract with Hamas-allied Qatar, where the school operates a satellite campus, includes a clause that effectively forbids students and faculty from criticizing the Qatari regime, a House Committee on Education and Workforce interview with soon-to-be-former Northwestern University president Michael Schill revealed.

The interview, which includes an extensive discussion of Northwestern's contract with the regime-controlled Qatar Foundation, reveals the speech limitations to which universities submit when they operate in the Gulf state.


When anti-Israel student radicals pitched tents on campus in violation of school rules last spring, Schill declined to "use force to remove the tents," he said during the House interview, because Northwestern's police force was too "tiny" and school administrators feared some encampment participants may have been armed. Instead, Schill negotiated with those participants, deploying two faculty members, Middle Eastern studies professor Jessica Winegar and management professor Nour Kteily, to help him do so.

Amid the negotiations, text messages referenced during Schill's interview show, Kteily texted another Middle Eastern studies professor, Wendy Pearlman, to say he hoped to "get some amazing wins for the encampment organizers." When students demanded Northwestern divest from Israel as part of any deal to end the encampment, meanwhile, university provost Kathleen Hagerty texted Kteily to say it would be "pretty easy" to boycott the sale of Sabra hummus, adding, "I'm all for making a deal."

 
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