Former Northwestern University President Henry Bienen will step into the role once again next week, serving as interim president following the resignation of President Michael Schill, the university said Tuesday.
In a news release, the school announced Bienen would step into the role Sept. 16. The move comes less than a week after Schill resigned.
Bienen served as the school’s president from January 1995 to August 2009 and was previously a professor of management and strategy in the Kellogg School of Management. Northwestern’s Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music is named for Bienen and his wife, a senior lecturer emerita at the university’s law school.
“We believe Henry is uniquely suited to follow President Michael Schill’s tenure and continue to support the university,” said Peter Barris, chair of Northwestern’s Board of Trustees, in a message to the community. “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.”
Jesse Ruiz (right), vice president of the Chicago Board of Education, and school board member Henry Bienen recite the Pledge of Allegiance before the start of the board’s monthly meeting Nov. 19, 2014, at George Westinghouse College Preparatory High School on the West Side.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file
Before coming to Northwestern, Bienen was dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of State, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the World Bank.
He was appointed to the Chicago Board of Education in May 2011 by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel. While on the board Bienen voted to close 50 schools in 2013. He also sat on the executive committee of Steppenwolf Theatre. He recently served as president of the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation from 2015 to 2020, when he resigned amid criticisms of the organization’s response to protests against police violence and racism.
Bienen hired former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald in 2006. Schill suspended Fitzgerald and subsequently fired him in 2023 following an explosive story in the student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, detailing hazing allegations against the team, which included nudity and lewd acts. Fitzgerald filed a $130 million lawsuit against the school for wrongful termination. The case was settled last month.
In a statement, he stressed the role the school has played in his life over the last three decades.
“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. “Our institution is resilient and embodies the very best of higher education and its endless promise to transform lives. 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.
Schill’s three-year tenure was marked by attacks from Republican officials, widespread student protests and mass layoffs spurred by Trump administration funding cuts.
He appeared before Congress in May of 2024, shortly after negotiating a deal with pro-Palestinian protesters to end a protest encampment, and Republican members of Congress characterized the deal as a surrender to what they called antisemitic activists.
Schill, who is Jewish, defended the agreement and said it was an example of using “dialogue rather than force” to navigate student dissent.
In his resignation email, Schill acknowledged the challenges the university — and by extension Bienen — still face going forward.
“Also recognize that difficult problems remain, particularly at the federal level,” Schill wrote. “It is critical that we continue to protect the university’s research mission and excellence while preserving academic freedom, integrity and independence.”