About 15 students protested Tuesday evening at The Rock to demand an explanation after Northwestern canceled Medill Prof. Steven Thrasher’s Spring Quarter classes.
On Monday, Medill Dean Charles Whitaker informed Thrasher in a letter that his Spring Quarter classes — an undergraduate class on LGBTQ+ health reporting and a doctoral-level seminar on public scholarship — were canceled. Whitaker also wrote that Thrasher would not be assigned classes in 2025-2026.
The protest, organized by Medill junior Luis Castañeda, a former Daily staffer, was titled “Tell Us the Truth.” It came after 117 Medill alumni and students penned a letter Sunday encouraging Medill faculty to demand Thrasher be reinstated.
Castañeda and Martha Contreras (Medill ’25), a former Daily staffer, praised Thrasher’s teaching. They also read portions of his LGBTQ+ health course syllabus and statements from Whitaker and Rima Kapitan, Thrasher’s attorney.
Thrasher’s undergraduate LGBTQ+ health reporting class fulfilled Medill’s Journalism in Practice requirement. Castañeda said this change “left students scrambling.”
“Northwestern does not care,” Castañeda said. “Medill does not care about letting its students learn.”
Castañeda particularly pilloried Whitaker, who has sole discretion on course assignments according to an email obtained by The Daily from NU’s general counsel to Kapitan.
Medill informed Thrasher on March 12 that he would be denied tenure after the 2025-2026 academic year. His Fall 2024 classes were also canceled shortly before they were scheduled to begin.
In Whitaker’s letter to Thrasher, Whitaker said he canceled Thrasher’s Spring Quarter classes because Thrasher publicly mischaracterized the reason for Medill’s decision to deny him tenure.
“Your public lobbying, mischaracterizations and efforts to encourage pressure from groups complicate and compromise the process of tenure review, decision making, and appeal,” Whitaker wrote to Thrasher. “Therefore, we are concerned about your presence with students in our community.”
In a March 20 news release, Thrasher accused Medill of denying him tenure because of his support for Palestine and his role at last year’s encampment, where he physically intervened between students and police. Medill’s letter to Thrasher did not provide a reason for the decision, but Thrasher said in the release that Whitaker deemed his teaching “inadequate” based on “serious concerns” from students.
A University spokesperson told The Daily in a statement that NU has “full confidence in the recommendation and decision-making process of our Medill faculty and dean.”
Contreras, who said she took Thrasher’s LGBTQ+ health reporting class in Spring 2024, said Thrasher supported queer students of color and helped her find her voice.
“I have been with dozens and dozens of Medill professors, and not one of them has helped me and shaped me the way that Dr. Thrasher has,” Contreras said. “Not one of them has created such a safe community as he did in his classroom.”
The pair criticized Medill for canceling Thrasher’s two Spring Quarter courses one day before quarter began and for canceling a class that Castañeda said was important to Black and queer Medill students.
“It is going to be a big loss to not only Northwestern but the LGBTQ community,” Castañeda said.
Email: i.steinberg@dailynorthwestern.com
X: @IsaiahStei27
Email: lexinewsom2028@u.northwestern.edu
Related Stories:
— Medill denies tenure, intends to terminate Prof Steven Thrasher next year
— University will not discipline Prof Steven Thrasher, launches new investigation
— AAUP sends letter to President Michael Schill concerning potential discipline of Steven Thrasher
