Michael Schill, President of the Northwestern University, said on Thursday that he would step down and end a three-year term, which ends by freezing hundreds of millions of dollars of federal financing of the Trump government and the heated criticism of the Republicans of the house about the university’s reaction to Campus protests.
Freezing the financing and uncertainty about his finances contributed to the decision of North Western to take around 200 people in summer.
In a statement in which he announced his resignation, Schill recognized the pressure from the White House.
“It is important that we continue to protect the research mission and the university’s excellence and at the same time keep academic freedom, integrity and independence,” he said.
Northwestern was an outstanding goal of President Donald Trump’s campaign of formulating Elite universities, which he mocked as breeding sites of liberalism and anti -Semitism. In April the administration frozen 790 million US dollars of federal financing for the private school in Evanston, Illinois, one of dozens of colleges that were examined for claims that they did not do enough to protect Jewish students.
During the wave of the pro-Palestinian protests in spring 2024, the northwest of conservatives drew through an agreement that fulfilled the demonstrators to reduce their camp. In return, Northwestern promised to restore a advisory committee for university investments and to carry out other obligations.
Schill defended the agreement during an appearance in May 2024 before a house committee who examined campus anti -Semitism.
“We had to lower the storage,” said Schill. “The police solution would not be available to protect people, and may not be the smartest solution that we saw in other locations across the country.”
Pendants of Israel and the administrative officers have framed the protests in northwest and other schools as anti-Semitic and “Pro-Hamas”. But people who are involved in the demonstrations reject this characterization. They say that it is not anti -Semitic to work for Palestinian human rights and territorial demands or to criticize Israeli military actions.
Schill also navigated the consequences of a harassment scandal that was not long after he was appointed President of the northwest in August 2022. The former soccer players submitted complaints in which sexual abuse and racial discrimination were charged with the team, and similar allegations then spread over several sports.
The football coach of Northwestern, Pat Fitzgerald, was initially fired later after an examination. The school came to the conclusion that he was responsible for knowing that trump cards took place and should have stopped. Fitzgerald denied misconduct and submitted a lawsuit last month that ended with an agreement.
Schill continues as president until an interim leader is selected and will return from a sabbatical as a faculty member of the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. He will also work with the board of trustees to restore the frozen federal financing of the university, said Northwestern.
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