An open letter from the Executive Committee of the Northwestern University chapter of the American Association of University Professors to University President Michael Schill, University Provost Kathleen Hagerty and Medill Dean Charles Whitaker:

Northwestern’s chapter of the AAUP has repeatedly spoken out on Medill Prof. Steven Thrasher’s ongoing mistreatment by Dean Whitaker and our University. It has been so severe that it has also garnered the attention of the national office of the AAUP.

AAUP President Todd Wolfson’s October 15, 2024 letter denounced Thrasher’s suspension from teaching, a move that coincided with pressure applied by House Republicans on the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

“Northwestern University professor Steven Thrasher is currently facing potential discipline, we fear, for exercising his academic freedom,” the letter reads. “Despite his exemplary research and teaching record, an ad hoc faculty committee has reportedly been assembled to investigate whether Dr. Thrasher should be sanctioned for alleged antisemitism and ‘lack of objectivity.’ … The timing of the investigation strongly suggests that University administrators and politicians are interpreting his expression of political beliefs as potential grounds for severe sanctions, including dismissal.”

That ad hoc committee found Dean Whitaker’s suspension of Thrasher baseless. In a resounding rebuke to Dean Whitaker’s credibility, the committee found Thrasher had not violated any University policies.

To add injury to injury, last month we learned that Dean Whitaker had notified Prof. Thrasher that his promotion and tenure had been denied.

In a letter dated March 18, 2025, Dean Whitaker explained his decision in these terms: “My independent assessment of your dossier was similar to that reported by Medill’s Promotion and Tenure Committee. I assessed your teaching to be inadequate with serious concerns reported by some students … My decision to deny your request for tenure was based on both the committee’s report and my independent assessment of your dossier.”

The only person to credit Dean Whitaker’s “independen(ce)” is of course Dean Whitaker.

Whitaker’s decision and the tenure evaluation process are opaque. We believe that, given the widespread incredulity the decision has provoked, Prof. Thrasher will appeal it. We entirely agree with President Wolfson that Prof. Thrasher’s involvement in Northwestern’s pro-Palestinian encampment — where he placed himself between campus police and students, leading to charges that were later dropped — subsequent cancellation of classes and denial of tenure strongly suggest that the University is punishing Prof. Thrasher for his political expression, both inside and outside the classroom.

Prof. Thrasher has been an active defender of pro-Palestinian students, speech and activism. Though we are incredulous at having to repeat it, in Prof. Thrasher’s case such expression falls well within his right to academic freedom.

As if the denial of his tenure, as well as the previous instances of mistreatment were insufficient, on March 31, 2025 — a day before Northwestern began Spring classes — Prof. Thrasher was notified that the two courses scheduled for this quarter as well as his teaching in 2025-26 were canceled.

This letter was signed both by Dean Whitaker as well as Provost Hagerty, implicating central administration in the mistreatment. The following grounds for these suspensions were given by Whitaker and Hagerty: “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.”

We are flabbergasted at the absence of logic in this communication. Moreover, the dean and provost have disregarded several requests to indicate any specific factual inaccuracies in Prof. Thrasher’s statements. They have not identified the policy on which they relied for this suspension; instead, they relied on the assertion of ‘dean’s discretion’ to justify their sanction.

Northwestern’s sole mission is education, yet it is paying Prof. Thrasher’s salary to ensure students not be allowed to learn from him.

Let us be clear: Dean Whitaker and Provost Hagerty are asserting that Thrasher’s insistence on defending himself in the face of the University’s attacks — that is, his right to speak out publicly about the institution and its procedures — is the reason to bar him from teaching students.

Northwestern is penalizing protest of its policies just as it has violated the right to political speech by Prof. Thrasher and its faculty and students.

As the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure articulated in 2008: “Historically, suspension has been regarded in (AAUP) policy as a severe sanction second only to dismissal, because it has been seen primarily in terms of removal of a faculty member from teaching. As one case report put it, ‘Barring a teacher from his classroom inflicts ignominy upon the teacher and is destructive to the morale of the academic community.’”

Despite our best efforts, we can find no faculty that have been removed from teaching at Northwestern for these reasons. Prof. Thrasher’s treatment is thus exceptional, for all the wrong reasons.

Northwestern’s actions in this case are destructive to our core mission of education. At a time when the University is under attack from the federal government, Northwestern must cease attacking its own faculty in the vain hopes of appeasing the Trump administration. That strategy has failed and will continue to fail.

We demand that Dean Whitaker and Provost Hagerty immediately reinstate Prof. Thrasher in his teaching duties. We do so in full knowledge that, to date and despite our requests, the University has provided no grounds for his suspension. We infer that the real reason for his suspension is to avoid the unflattering attention he is drawing, rightly, to the University.

NU-AAUP Executive Committee

Jackie Stevens, President, Professor, Political Science
Jorge Coronado, Treasurer, Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
Lauren Stokes, Secretary, Associate Professor, History
Linda Gates, Member-at-Large, Professor of Instruction, Theatre
Sam Weber, Member-at-Large, Avalon Foundation Professor of Humanities

Editor’s Note: This letter may not represent the views of every member of NU-AAUP.

If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.