Nearly a year after Northwestern University President Michael Schill appeared on Capitol Hill for a hearing on antisemitism, the university released a report Monday touting an 88% drop in documented incidents of antisemitic discrimination from November 2023 to November 2024.
NU, facing an active Trump administration investigation over alleged antisemitism on campus, said in the update that “like many universities across the nation, Northwestern was not prepared for the antisemitism that occurred last year.”
Among other things, since last summer, the university has revised its handbook and code of conduct, created a new Display and Solicitation Policy banning “unauthorized 3D installations including tents and structures” and updated the Demonstration Policy to limit how, when and where protests may be conducted.
In February, Northwestern also launched an antisemitism training module that is mandatory for all students and adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
The Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, formed under a January executive order signed by President Donald Trump, is scheduled to visit NU and nine other campuses. The new administration has cracked down on alleged antisemitism, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have recently detained and threatened to deport several college students who joined pro-Palestinian protests last year. Trump pulled $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University over antisemitism and is now reviewing $9 billion in grants to Harvard University.
Northwestern has similarly been a target of questioning and federal investigations since student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian encampment on Deering Meadow in April 2024. In Monday’s report, the university said it has expanded its police force, disciplined 11 students for breaking protest policies and fired a staff member “for violations of the staff policies.”
Last-minute class cancellation
One professor named at last year’s congressional hearing and in government reports is Steven Thrasher, the Daniel H. Renberg Chair of social justice in reporting. Thrasher helped form a line between police and encampment protesters. The Cook County state’s attorney dropped charges against him for obstructing an officer, but Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism canceled his fall classes as the university investigated his participation in the encampment.
Earlier this month, Thrasher announced that Medill had denied him tenure in what he called “a political hit job over my support for Palestine.” But he said he would be able to continue teaching until August 2026, starting with this spring quarter that begins Tuesday, April 1.
On Monday, though, students registered for his class on reporting on LGBTQ health got a last-minute notice that the course “has been canceled,” and had five hours to enroll in an alternate course. Thrasher’s class would have fulfilled Medill’s required 301 credit for Journalism in Practice, and the school sent a survey — archived online here — to those who had been enrolled in the course, asking them to rank other 301 options by preference.
In a letter to the editor published Sunday by The Daily Northwestern, more than 100 Medill students and alumni condemned the school’s decision to reject tenure for Thrasher and let him go in 2026.
“It should not be lost on any of us the cruel irony that Dr. Thrasher was hired as the Daniel H. Renberg Chair for social justice in reporting and is being fired for doing that very thing,” they wrote. “To lose Dr. Thrasher is to lose the only educator who taught courses on LGBTQ journalism, teaching students like us that we belong and that our voices are powerful.”
Jon Yates, vice president of global marketing and communications at Northwestern, on Tuesday morning told the RoundTable: “Medill Dean Charles Whitaker, in consultation with the Office of the Provost, has decided to cancel the classes that Steven Thrasher was scheduled to teach in the Spring Quarter. He also has been informed he will no longer be assigned classes to teach going forward. As Professor Thrasher has publicly disclosed, he was informed earlier this month that his bid for tenure was denied. The University takes the tenure process very seriously and has adhered to the rules that govern that process. The University has full confidence in the recommendation and decision-making process of our Medill faculty and dean, respectively.”
Thrasher’s attorney, Rima Kapita, forwarded the message he received from Medill Dean Charles Whitaker and Northwestern Provost Kathleen Hagerty on Monday notifying him of his course cancellation.
“Over the past few weeks, you have routinely and regularly mischaracterized in public forums the decision to deny you tenure, which was made after due process,” Whitaker and Hagerty wrote. Thrasher had previously said they justified denying him tenure because his teaching was allegedly “inadequate” despite receiving good evaluations from Medill in previous years.
“Your public lobbying, mischaracterizations and efforts to encourage pressure from groups complicate and compromise the process of tenure review, decision making, and appeal. Therefore, we are concerned about your presence with students in our community. Medill is removing you from classes for the spring term. Furthermore, you will not be assigned classes to teach in the 2025-26 academic year.”
Alex Harrison contributed reporting.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a quote from a letter to Thrasher notifying him that his spring class had been canceled and that he would no longer be assigned classes.
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