{"id":2554,"date":"2025-09-04T21:39:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T21:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/09\/04\/northwestern-university-president-to-resign-amid-tensions-with-donald-trump\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T21:39:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T21:39:15","slug":"northwestern-university-president-to-resign-amid-tensions-with-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/09\/04\/northwestern-university-president-to-resign-amid-tensions-with-donald-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwestern University president to resign amid tensions with Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>US universities have faced pressure from the Trump administration to crack down on pro-Palestine activism.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Northwestern University President Michael Schill has announced he will leave his position, as the school\u00a0struggles with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/4\/9\/trump-administration-freezes-funds-for-cornell-northwestern-universities\">funding cuts<\/a> enacted under the administration of United States President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on Thursday, Schill acknowledged friction with the federal government and said it was the \u201cright time\u201d to pass the reins to a new leader.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/3\/us-judge-rules-trump-unlawfully-cut-harvard-university-research-grants\">US judge rules Trump unlawfully cut Harvard University research grants<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/8\/25\/trump-bans-burning-of-us-flag-in-defiance-of-constitutional-protections\">Trump bans burning of US flag in defiance of constitutional protections<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/8\/20\/trump-says-smithsonian-museums-only-cover-how-bad-slavery-was-in-us\">Trump says Smithsonian museums only cover \u2018how bad Slavery was\u2019 in US<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cDifficult problems remain,\u201d he wrote, \u201cparticularly at the federal level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But he called on his successor to protect Northwestern, a prestigious university north of Chicago, Illinois, from threats to its academic mission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is critical that we continue to protect the University\u2019s research mission and excellence while preserving academic freedom, integrity, and independence,\u201d Schill said.<\/p>\n<p>Schill has led the private university for nearly three years. During that time, the school has weathered a scandal in its athletic department over hazing involving sexual abuse and racism.<\/p>\n<p>But Northwestern also attracted conservative backlash last year when Schill struck a deal with pro-Palestinian student protesters who were demonstrating against Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement came in April 2024, as many campuses saw protest encampments erupt on their lawns. Northwestern was no exception.<\/p>\n<p>In exchange for dismantling the camp and limiting the duration of the protests, Schill agreed to re-establish an advisory committee to review Northwestern\u2019s investments, in a gesture to the students\u2019 calls to divest from Israel.<\/p>\n<p>That agreement was held up as a peaceful alternative to police intervention, something other universities had opted for. Other deals with student protesters, including at Johns Hopkins University, quickly followed.<\/p>\n<p>But Trump has sought to punish universities that saw large-scale pro-Palestinian protests emerge on campus.<\/p>\n<p>He has repeatedly claimed the demonstrations created an unsafe learning environment for Jewish students and staff.<\/p>\n<p>But critics say the Trump administration has used allegations of anti-Semitism as a pretext to silence protesters and\u00a0bring institutions of higher education <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/7\/24\/whats-in-the-200m-deal-trump-has-struck-with-columbia-university\">in line with his political priorities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Since taking office for a second term in January, Trump and his officials have\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/3\/us-judge-rules-trump-unlawfully-cut-harvard-university-research-grants\">cut funds<\/a> to universities in the name of anti-Semitism and civil rights.<\/p>\n<p>The administration has also carried out other punitive measures, including initiating <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/5\/11\/turkish-student-rumeysa-ozturk-says-she-will-continue-to-pursue-her-case\">deportation proceedings<\/a> against foreign students who participated in the protests.<\/p>\n<p>In Northwestern\u2019s case, the Trump administration froze nearly $800m in research grants in April, on the basis that the school had allowed anti-Semitism to flourish.<\/p>\n<p>That funding freeze reportedly forced Northwestern to trim its budget and eliminate 425 positions, though half of them were vacant at the time of the cuts.<\/p>\n<p>Northwestern is not the only campus to face pressure from the loss of federal funding.<\/p>\n<p>In July, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/7\/23\/columbia-university-suspends-expels-nearly-80-students-over-gaza-protests\">Columbia University<\/a> in New York City agreed to pay a $200m settlement to restore its federal grants, and Brown University likewise struck a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brown.edu\/news\/2025-07-30\/brown-united-states-resolution-agreement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">deal<\/a> with Trump that forced it to pay $50m for workforce development programmes in Rhode Island.<\/p>\n<p>Other universities in similar predicaments have seen top leadership depart under White House pressure, like at Northwestern.<\/p>\n<p>In June, the University of Virginia saw its president, James Ryan, leave after a pressure campaign against diversity initiatives at the school.<\/p>\n<p>But earlier this week, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/3\/us-judge-rules-trump-unlawfully-cut-harvard-university-research-grants\">federal judge ruled<\/a> that Trump\u2019s efforts to cancel Harvard University\u2019s federal grants were an illegal form of retaliation and a violation of the school\u2019s free speech rights. That case is expected to be appealed.<\/p>\n<p>Trump and his allies have expressed ire for several top universities, which they see as bastions of political dissent and left-wing ideas.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on Thursday, the White House said it \u201clooks forward to working with the new leadership\u201d of Northwestern University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<p>Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US universities have faced pressure from the Trump administration to crack down on pro-Palestine activism. Northwestern University President Michael Schill has announced he will leave his position, as the school\u00a0struggles with funding cuts enacted under the administration of United States President Donald Trump. In a statement on Thursday, Schill acknowledged friction with the federal government &#8230; <a title=\"Northwestern University president to resign amid tensions with Donald Trump\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/09\/04\/northwestern-university-president-to-resign-amid-tensions-with-donald-trump\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Northwestern University president to resign amid tensions with Donald Trump\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}