Less than a week after President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for additional measures to combat antisemitism, Northwestern University was named in a group of five schools that the U.S. Department of Education is investigating for alleged “widespread antisemitic harassment.”
Other schools under investigation are Columbia University; Portland State University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Each of the schools saw pro-Palestinian student encampments in 2024.
The same executive order paves the way for international students or staff at any institution to have their visas revoked and face deportation for participating in pro-Palestinian protests if the investigation deems the protests antisemitic.
In a statement, Northwestern signaled it intends to cooperate with the investigation.
“There is no place for antisemitism or any form of identity-based discrimination or hate at Northwestern University,” the statement says. “Free expression and academic freedom are among our core values, but we have made clear that these values provide no excuse for behavior that threatens the well-being of others.”
National news outlets, such as CNN, are also reporting that the Trump administration is drafting an executive order to initiate the Department of Education’s elimination. It is unclear how such an order would impact the investigation into Northwestern.
Congressional questioning
This investigation comes in the wake of a congressional report on antisemitism released in December, which criticized Northwestern President Michael Schill for having “misled” Congress in his testimony before a House panel last spring.
Northwestern was one of a few schools that reached negotiated agreements with student demonstrators to dismantle encampments on school grounds. House Republicans questioned these agreements, alleging that entering into them endangered Jewish students and supported antisemitism on campus.
In the report, the House cites that during his testimony Schill denied the possibility of hiring an anti-Zionist rabbi for the school. However, the report says documents show otherwise, including the final agreement reached between student protesters and the school.
The agreement “contains a mechanism for facilitating such a hire, and encampment organizers stated they would ‘be able to pick a new rabbi’ as a result of the agreement,” the report says.
“At best, President Schill’s testimony lacked candor and is unbecoming of a university president; at worst Schill’s testimony was false and met the criteria of a federal crime,” it continued.
Northwestern University’s final agreement with student protesters denied a number of other student protest demands, including divestment from Israel and related investments, which Schill cited during his congressional testimony.
“We did not give in to any of the students’ demands, and the commitments we made are consistent with our values,” Schill said before Congress in May. “Importantly, I rejected the main student demand for divestment.”
The university did agree to two notable student demands, though: the disclosure of investments to “any internal stakeholder” and the reestablishment of the school’s Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility.
Schill announced last week that this committee would resume activity in February.
Previous criticism, litigation and investigation attempts
Irrespective of the most recent investigation, other individuals and organizations have criticized and even sued Northwestern over its handling of the pro-Palestinian encampments.
The Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations have called for Schill’s resignation, with the league’s current rating for the school sitting at an “F.” Northwestern also faced two lawsuits, one from a group of students and one from an individual, in May for alleged antisemitism.
The two lawsuits have since been combined into one federal suit. The combined class-action lawsuit, with one Jane Doe and three John Doe plaintiffs, is pending in pre-trial motions in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois.
Northwestern filed a pretrial motion to dismiss the case, and the last substantive filing (on Oct. 1, 2024) was the school’s reply to plaintiffs’ response against that dismissal motion. Since then, all parties have been waiting for the judge to rule on the motion to dismiss, and there are currently no hearings or filing deadlines scheduled.
Northwestern was also cited as a hostile campus by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which states on its website that “Northwestern faculty and community members who have spoken in support of Palestine have had their personal information leaked, encountered online threats, and suffered various forms of harassment.”
Advocacy group Palestine Legal filed a federal civil rights complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights last April against Northwestern’s law school.
“Northwestern Law has permitted an environment of anti-Palestinian racism that has denied Palestinian students and students perceived to be Palestinian equal access to campus life,” the group wrote in a press release.
No updates to this complaint are available on the DOE website.
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