Northwestern University President Michael Schill resigns amid funding freeze

Kate Armanini, Chicago Tribune on Sep 4, 2025

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CHICAGO — Northwestern University President Michael Schill will resign after a three-year tenure, including five months of an unprecedented $790 million federal funding freeze, the school announced Thursday.

Northwestern was never formally notified of the pause of research funds in April, which came amid several federal investigations into allegations of antisemitism.

The school, along with Schill, had already been subject to significant Republican scrutiny. The president was grilled for hours before a congressional committee in 2024 on the environment on campus for Jewish students.

Northwestern is among several elite universities that have come under fire from the Trump administration for antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

In a message to the Northwestern community Thursday morning, Schill acknowledged the “difficult problems” at the federal level. He said he would remain in the role until the naming of an interim president.

“Over the past three years, it has been my profound honor to serve as president of Northwestern University,” Schill said in a statement. “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.”

In the months since the funding pause, the campus has been rattled with budget cuts. School officials have pursued a string of belt-tightening measures, including eliminating more than 400 staff positions in July. A month earlier, officials announced changes to employees’ health insurance plans and a hiring freeze.

Schill will continue to work with the university’s Board of Trustees on efforts to restore funding, the university said. Once he steps down, he will take a sabbatical before returning as faculty member at the Pritzker School of Law.

Schill was named as Northwestern’s 17th president in August 2022. Previously, he was president of the University of Oregon for seven years, and had held positions at the law schools of the University of Chicago and the University of California, Los Angeles.

“From the very beginning of my tenure, Northwestern faced serious and often painful challenges,” Schill said. “In the face of those challenges and the hard, but necessary choices that were before us, I was always guided by enduring values of our University: protecting students, fostering academic excellence, and defending faculty, academic freedom, due process and the integrity of the institution.”

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