President of University Targeted by Trump Resigns

Northwestern University President Michael Schill announced Thursday that he will resign, ending a three-year tenure marked by the freeze of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding by the Trump administration and heated criticism from House Republicans over the university's response to campus protests. In a statement announcing his resignation, Schill acknowledged those challenges directly, the AP reports. "It is critical that we continue to protect the University's research mission and excellence while preserving academic freedom, integrity, and independence," he said.

Northwestern emerged as a prominent target of President Trump's campaign to reshape top colleges he has derided as hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism. In April, the administration froze $790 million in federal funding for the school in Evanston, Illinois, which is among dozens of colleges that have been under investigation over claims they did not do enough to protect Jewish students during campus protests. In July, Northwestern, which has campuses in Evanston and downtown Chicago, said it would eliminate around 425 jobs, calling it "the most painful measure we have had to take," the New York Times reports.

In his letter to the Northwestern community, Schill said he would stay on until an interim president is chosen. After that, he said, he plans to take a sabbatical before returning to Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law as a professor, reports the Daily Northwestern. "To me, the highest honor a person could have is being a member of our faculty and I look forward to nurturing our students and continuing to champion higher education, a cornerstone of American society that, despite its imperfections, is more important than ever to our nation's future," Schill wrote.