Interim President Henry Bienen defended Northwestern’s Nov. 28 agreement with the federal government to restore federal funding and emphasized the University’s “autonomy” during a State of the University address to faculty and staff Thursday morning.
The hour-long talk, which included both a speech and Q&A segment, was hosted by the NU Staff Advisory Council in the McCormick Foundation Center Forum.
Bienen opened his address by highlighting the University’s latest accomplishments — economics and history Prof. Joel Mokyr’s Nobel Prize win, increased application numbers for the Class of 2029 and high graduation rates — before turning to challenges facing NU.
While acknowledging there are aspects of the federal deal he does not like, Bienen said it was the most viable path forward, as he argued suing the federal government would have embroiled the University in “years of uncertainty.”
“Is it a perfect deal?” Bienen said. “No. Is it everything that I wanted? No. Did we get what I thought, under the circumstances, were the best deal we could get? The answer is yes, or I wouldn’t have signed the deal.”
Bienen added that he “tried very hard” to alter certain provisions of the deal but was unable to secure all the changes he sought. He said he pushed to remove language relating to transgender operations and attempted to redirect some of the $75 million payment away from the Department of the Treasury, emphasizing that the resulting agreement “wasn’t for want of trying.”
Turning to compensation, Bienen confirmed NU will provide salary raises this year after a year without them, though he did not specify a percentage — only that he hopes to announce the details “fairly soon.”
In addition to confirming raises, Bienen said the University is reviewing staff tuition benefits and aims to move “very quickly” to address concerns raised by employees pursuing degrees at NU.
In the Q&A portion, Bienen was asked to comment on the hiring freeze. He cautioned that easing the hiring freeze would not lead to widespread hiring across the University, but rather targeted hiring based on the University’s specific needs.
“The fact that we take off a hiring freeze doesn’t mean the floodgates are open,” Bienen said. “It’s just not what our budgets would allow, and not everything with respect to budgets comes from the federal freeze on research funds for us. It’s not a buoyant time for higher education.”
Bienen added that while he does not currently envision budget pressures leading to layoffs, no position is secure forever.
NUSAC Vice Chair Funmilayo Ojikutu and Chair Cymon Kimmel introduced Bienen, highlighting the interim president’s first-term achievements.
“During his tenure, Northwestern faculty and students received numerous academic awards,” Ojikutu said. “The endowment quintupled. Applications for admission skyrocketed, and the University’s reputation grew, both nationally and internationally.”
Yael Mayer, the director of operations and outreach for NU’s Center for Synthetic Biology, attended the event and participated in the Q&A portion.
She said she appreciated Bienen’s openness and willingness to share the University’s inner-workings with staff.
“That’s incredibly powerful for staff to feel like, ‘Okay, this was not just a flippant decision. It was thought through, and though it might be hard and difficult, or though I may not like the decision, I can appreciate the time it took to get there and the difficulty with which they battled,’” Mayer said.
Beyond finances and staffing, Bienen touched on a range of other topics including NU’s switch to UnitedHealthcare, the ongoing search for the University’s next president, his decision to appoint a new provost during his interim term and NU’s hiring of new sports coaches.
Bienen concluded the address by spotlighting what he described as the essential role of universities.
“To me, universities are among the greatest institutions of American life,” Bienen said. “The attack that we’ve lived through in the last years on the universities is dumb, foolish and in many ways heart-wrenching, because this is where progress will come from, as much as anywhere.”
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