Despite having stepped down at the start of the academic year, former President Michael Schill is still easy to find on Northwestern’s campus.
He remains a faculty member at the Pritzker School of Law and the Kellogg School of Management. And occasionally, he’ll catch a student theater production.
Schill resigned in September 2025 following a tenure marked by challenges.
During his term, which began 2022, NU faced allegations of hazing within NU’s football program, negotiations with demonstrators at the Deering Meadow encampment and federal scrutiny of alleged antisemitism on campus.
His presidency culminated in the Trump administration’s freeze on $790 million of research funding in April 2025 leading to the elimination of more than 400 existing staff positions.
Five days after Schill’s resignation, NU announced that former President Henry Bienen would return to lead the University as interim president.
NU’s Board of Trustees announced Purdue President Mung Chiang as NU’s 18th president Monday, following a months-long search. Chiang will take office July 1.
Hours after the announcement, The Daily spoke with Schill over the phone about his relationships with Bienen and Chiang, his decision to step down, and his idea to author a book on university autonomy.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
The Daily: How do you know President-elect Chiang?
Schill: He was president of Purdue for two, three years when I was president of Northwestern. We would see each other at Big Ten meetings, and also meetings of the AAU (Association of American Universities), so I did get a chance to meet him and talk with him at those meetings.
The Daily: What do you think makes him suited to lead Northwestern?
Schill: He’s super bright and an accomplished scholar, and I think that presidents need to command the respect of the faculty in order to be successful. I think he will easily be able to do that. I think that his comments at meetings, his demeanor, were thoughtful. He seemed to have great judgment and was not someone who needed to always be the center of attention everywhere he goes. Part of being president is to let other people shine — that is, not to have all eyes on you all the time.
He’s done great things at Purdue. I think that his particular area of expertise in engineering is really going to help Northwestern, (and something) I anticipated doing was to be making investments in engineering. That sort of got a little bit sideways as we were dealing with budgetary issues. But as soon as the budget allows, I’m sure that Mung will be able to bring his background, his incredible strategic knowledge to bear in making our STEM as good as it can get, which is going to be pretty damn good. I also think, in his statement that he made, he showed care and attention to parts of the University, like the humanities and social sciences, that are not necessarily in his own particular wheelhouse.
The Daily: How involved were you with the presidential search?
Schill: I wasn’t involved at all. You never have a role in selecting your successor.
The Daily: You took a class with President Bienen at Princeton University. What’s your relationship with him like?
Schill: I’ve known Henry since — I think it was my sophomore year in college. I took comparative urban politics with Henry. It was a great class, and he was a great professor. We kept up intermittently until — I was at (the University of) Oregon, so probably 10, 12 years ago — I was appointed to a board of a nonprofit organization called ITHAKA. Henry was on the board, and we reconnected. Ever since, he’s been a mentor and someone who — both when I was at Oregon and when I was president of Northwestern — I always sought for his advice and ideas. He was always very generous with his time and with his advice. He and his wife and I have become good friends, and indeed, I live two floors above him.
The Daily: What is living in the same building as him like?
Schill: I bump into him quite a bit, sometimes in the gym and sometimes in the lobby, and then we sometimes have dinner. When I was at Oregon, Henry was always keeping me up to date on Northwestern and encouraging me that when the presidency — when there was an opening, I should be interested in Northwestern. He gave me great advice, and I took it.
The Daily: After you decided to step down from the position, what was that transition like for you? If you engaged with President Bienen at all, what was that like?
Schill: I was in his apartment, and I was telling him that I was stepping down, and he said, ‘Well, I know that, and I’ve been asked whether I want to be interim president.’ And I encouraged him. I actually think Henry was the perfect choice to lead the school after I stepped down. He had the trust of the faculty, and he had my trust. He had the trust of many of our trustees, and I think that that put him in really great stead to be able to make some of the difficult decisions that he had to make.
The Daily: What would you say those difficult decisions were?
Schill: Well, you covered them, so you can imagine, but obviously the one that was facing him head on was how to lift the Trump administration’s freeze on federal research funding for the university.
The Daily: What has it been like for you to watch not only the decisions that President Bienen’s been making in the past year, but to watch NU after taking a step back?
Schill: I actually think Northwestern has made a lot of progress over the past year, and I think Henry has done a great job in fundraising. He was able to reach an agreement with the federal government and free up our research funding. I’m not going to comment one way or the other what I felt about the agreement, but it did move the University forward in terms of receiving funding from the federal government.
I had a committee on free speech and institutional speech, and he was a member of that. He’s always been a strong proponent of academic freedom and free expression. I also feel very strongly that the University needs to protect our faculty and our students’ speech and expression. So, I was gratified that Henry continued that commitment. I knew he would, because I know Henry has all of the right academic values.
The Daily: What are you up to these days since stepping down?
Schill: I am a faculty member at Pritzker and the Kellogg School. I also have an appointment at NYU (New York University), and so I have been splitting my time pretty much 50/50 between my office in the Pritzker School and my office at NYU and engaging with faculty, doing research, a little writing. And right now, I’m contemplating a book project.
The Daily: What’s the book going to be about?
Schill: My thought at the moment is to write about university autonomy.
The Daily: Why did you decide to step down from your role as NU’s president?
Schill: I think I have answered that in my statement that I made when I left, and I haven’t said anything about it since. I think we needed a new leader to be able to resolve some issues that I had not been able to resolve and wouldn’t have been able to resolve. I just think at certain times you need to do what’s best for the institution, and that’s what I tried to do.
The Daily: Looking back on your term, is there anything you would have done differently?
Schill: Oh, I think anyone who’s been president of a university that isn’t able to be self-critical and thinks everything they did was perfect is a fool. And I don’t consider myself a fool. I will say, I believe that the major decisions that I made with regard to the challenges that faced us, I would make again.
The Daily: So you would do the same thing regarding, for example, what happened with the funding freeze?
Schill: I wasn’t the person to resolve the funding freeze, but I think I’ll just leave it there. When I go to sleep at night, I feel good about the decisions that I made and my team made.
The Daily: What do you think it takes to be a successful president of NU or of any university right now?
Schill: I think what one needs is to have the right academic values to believe in universities, our unique and important role in society and the courage to sometimes make decisions that will be unpopular among some people, but that are right, and the ability to bring people together around those decisions. I think those are the important skills, and everything I know about Mung suggests that he will be able to do all of those things and be a great president.
The Daily: Do you miss being NU’s president?
Schill: I miss the students, and I miss my team of administrators, who are the best administrators in the world, and some of my friends on the Board of Trustees. I do miss that regular engagement. But I also understand that things need to change. Universities need to have new leaders, and this is a natural process, whether it would have ended last year or ended next year. I intend to remain an active and engaged faculty member, and I’m always happy to do whatever I can to further the interests of Northwestern.
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Related Stories:
— Bienen, Schill, Schapiro reflect on presidential tenures, share advice
— Q&A: President-elect Mung Chiang talks AI, engineering background, University goals
— Bienen talks NU-Q, federal funding deal, University future in interview with The Daily
