House ed committee won’t tolerate Northwestern U’s ‘obstruction,’ chair says

Northwestern didn’t comply adequately with the committee’s prior data request, according to Foxx.

By JNS

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, sent a letter to Northwestern University accusing the private school in suburban Chicago of having “obstructed” and “impeded” congressional efforts to monitor the school’s antisemitism problems.

“Unfortunately, rather than being cooperative and transparent, Northwestern has obstructed the committee’s investigation of this matter,” Foxx wrote.

Michael Schill, president of the school in Evanston, Ill., “pointedly refused to answer questions from committee members, made statements at odds with the public record…and demonstrated an overall attitude of contempt for the committee.”

Northwestern didn’t comply adequately with the committee’s prior data request, according to Foxx. “Northwestern produced a mere 13 pages of documents responsive to the committee’s priority requests that were not already public—all of which were formal records of Board of Trustees meetings that lack substantive details of the board’s discussions,” added Foxx.

“Despite the committee’s specific request for records such as notes, summaries and recordings that would offer real insight into the board’s deliberations, Northwestern failed to produce any such responsive documents or certify that they do not exist,” she wrote.

In the letter, Foxx asked the school to provide documents, including communications about the “Northwestern Liberated Zone” encampment, antisemitic incidents on campus since Oct. 7 and Qatar funding, by June 17.