Rebecca Blank will not serve as Northwestern’s next President after learning she has an aggressive form of cancer, she announced Monday.

In an email to the NU community, Blank said that she had planned to arrive on campus Monday as President-elect, but discovered the cancer last week. She said the treatments she is starting would make it “almost impossible” to take on the job of new University president.

“This last week has probably brought the biggest changes that I have ever experienced in such a short period of time,” Blank said in the email. “I am grieving the lost opportunities to work with all of you across campus to make Northwestern even better in the years ahead.”

Board of Trustees Chair J. Landis Martin announced in a follow-up email that University President Morton Schapiro agreed to stay on until a successor is selected. 

Peter Barris, who led the initial committee and will become chair of the board on Sept. 1 will again lead the search.

Schapiro announced his intention to leave Northwestern in March 2021. Blank, currently the chancellor emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was named Schapiro’s successor in October and would have been the University’s first woman president. She was unanimously nominated by the 34-person Presidential Search Committee.

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