House Committee calls Northwestern president for transcribed interview
Committee Chair Tim Walberg wrote to Schill that the university has failed to meet its own commitments made at a committee hearing last year
Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images
(L-R) Mr. Michael Schill, President, Northwestern University, Dr. Jonathan Holloway, President, Rutgers University and Mr. Frederick Lawrence testify at a hearing called "Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos" before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-MI) wrote to Northwestern University President Michael Schill on Monday summoning him to appear before the committee for a transcribed interview about alleged failures to protect Jewish students on the Illinois campus, nearly a year after Schill gave testimony at a committee hearing.
Walberg said Schill has failed to live up to his own commitments made at the May 23, 2024, hearing, where he pledged to take a series of steps to combat campus antisemitism, investigate incidents of antisemitic harassment and pursue disciplinary proceedings.
“Despite Northwestern’s claims to the contrary, the Committee has not seen your commitments to discipline, enforcement, and security come to satisfactory fruition,” Walberg wrote to Schill.
Walberg said that the committee has yet to receive documentation reflecting disciplinary proceedings against students involved in antisemitic incidents, that antisemitic vandalism occurred on campus during Passover this year, that the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter reportedly held a training session with materials promoting violence and that reporting indicated Northwestern’s mandatory anti-discrimination training included material denying and downplaying antisemitism.
Schill faced significant backlash from his comments at the hearing, which were at times vague or combative, and during which he defended a deal university administration made with an anti-Israel encampment on Northwestern’s campus. He also declined to answer various specific questions.