Former Northwestern University President Henry Bienen will return to the role on an interim basis, replacing former President Michael Schill after his resignation last week, the school announced Tuesday.
Bienen served as the university’s 15th president from January 1995 to August 2009, and will step into the role again effective Sept. 16.
“I am honored to be asked to serve Northwestern again, and I look forward to helping the University I love so dearly navigate what is a critical and difficult time for research universities,” Bienen said.
The move follows the Thursday exit of Schill, whose challenging three-year term was bookended by an unprecedented $790 million federal funding freeze.
Bienen inherits a university facing significant pressure under President Donald Trump, who has increasingly placed higher education under fire for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion practices and its handling of antisemitism. Though Northwestern officials received no formal notification of the funding freeze in April, it came amid several federal probes into the environment on campus for Jewish students.
The chair of the university’s board of trustees, Peter Barris, said in a statement that Bienen is “uniquely suited” to follow Schill’s tenure.
“With more than three decades of service to our community, Henry has a deep knowledge of Northwestern and shares our love and passion for the institution,” Barris said.
Bienen, a political scientist, previously served as the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Most recently, he was the president of the Poetry Foundation from 2015 to 2020.
When he retired from Northwestern in 2009, Bienen was the third-longest serving president in the university’s history.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Princess Diana’s visit to Chicago in 1996
“Our institution is resilient and embodies the very best of higher education and its endless promise to transform lives,” Bienen said. “As we start a new academic year, I am excited to build on the momentum created by Northwestern’s incredible faculty, students, staff and alumni.”
In his resignation announcement last week, Schill didn’t directly address what prompted his resignation, though he noted the “difficult problems” at the federal level. “I believe now is the right time for new leadership to guide Northwestern into its next chapter,” Schill wrote.
After stepping down, Schill said he will take a sabbatical before returning as a faculty member to teach and conduct research at the Pritzker School of Law.
Originally Published: