Northwestern president Michael Schill is resigning, he announced Thursday. No specific date was given, but Schill will remain on until an interim his named. After a sabbatical, Schill will return to Northwestern's law school to teach, but he's getting out of academic administration.
The announcement comes two weeks to the day after Northwestern settled the lawsuit brought by former Wildcats head coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Schill fired Fitzgerald in July 2023 after initially leveling a 2-week suspension of the coach, following a months-long investigation into NU football that found a hazing problem within the program but, crucially, that the football coaches did not have "sufficient" knowledge to stop.
One day later, following a new report from the campus newspaper The Daily Northwestern, Schill wrote in an open letter to the Northwestern community, Schill wrote that he "may have erred in weighing the appropriate sanction" because, he said, he focused "too much on what the report concluded (Fitzgerald) didn't know and not enough on what he should have known."
Two days after that, Schill fired Fitzgerald. "While I am appreciative of the feedback and considered it in my decision-making, ultimately, the decision to originally suspend Coach Fitzgerald was mine and mine alone, as is the decision to part ways with him," Schill said in 2023.
Fitzgerald responded by saying he was "surprised when I learned that the president of Northwestern unilaterally revoked our agreement without any prior notification and subsequently terminated my employment."
That October, Fitzgerald launched a lawsuit against Northwestern seeking $110 million. That process concluded late last month; no financial terms were given, but Fitzgerald's attorney Bryan Harlan exited the process by saying, "we're very, very satisfied with the terms of the settlement." Northwestern released its own statement saying, “The evidence uncovered during extensive discovery did not establish that any player reported hazing to Coach Fitzgerald or that Coach Fitzgerald condoned or directed any hazing.”
Fitzgerald's name was not mentioned in Schill's resignation letter on Thursday, but it didn't need to be. Think Breaking Bad, with Fitzgerald playing the part of Walter White and Schill off-screen as the departed Gustavo Fring.
"As I reflect on the progress we have made and what lies ahead, I believe now is the right time for new leadership to guide Northwestern into its next chapter," Schill wrote. "Therefore, I have decided, in consultation with the leadership of the Board of Trustees, that I will step down as President. I will remain in my role until an interim president is in place, and I will assist in his or her transition. After a sabbatical, I will return to Northwestern Pritzker School of Law to teach and conduct research, my first and enduring passion."
To be sure, Schill faced headwinds outside of football. The school saw $795 million of federal research funds frozen in April, and in July cut 425 jobs. To be sure, there have been better times to be a university president, and Schill had reasons outside of the Fitzgerald debacle to get out. But it's hard to separate the likely-9-figure settlement awarded just two weeks ago and the timing of Schill's exit.