Northwestern Magazine Article on Schill.
- Thread starter TheC
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If you are an alumnus then you probably receive the Northwestern Magazine. The Fall issue just came out and there is a long article on Schill. They, the magazine, think he is wonderful and write about him in glowing terms.
On the front cover they start their unwarranted praise for him with the headline “The Part Forward” followed by the sub-head “President Michael Schill has a vision to take Northwestern to new heights.”
You are certainly entitled to you own opinion about him and I am not here to change anyone’s mind. However, my own opinion, for the little it is worth, is that he is dangerous and about to change the entire nature of the university. And change it in ways that are not for the better.
But what really bothers me the most about the article is that it pretty much ignores the accomplishments of his predecessor, Morty Schapiro. When you read the article you come away with the distinct impression that Morty didn’t do nearly enough to improve the university during his tenure. But have no fear because Schill is now going to make the big changes that are necessary.
You may have a different reaction, but I saw it a slap in the face for Morty and I didn’t like it one bit.
On the front cover they start their unwarranted praise for him with the headline “The Part Forward” followed by the sub-head “President Michael Schill has a vision to take Northwestern to new heights.”
You are certainly entitled to you own opinion about him and I am not here to change anyone’s mind. However, my own opinion, for the little it is worth, is that he is dangerous and about to change the entire nature of the university. And change it in ways that are not for the better.
But what really bothers me the most about the article is that it pretty much ignores the accomplishments of his predecessor, Morty Schapiro. When you read the article you come away with the distinct impression that Morty didn’t do nearly enough to improve the university during his tenure. But have no fear because Schill is now going to make the big changes that are necessary.
You may have a different reaction, but I saw it a slap in the face for Morty and I didn’t like it one bit.
I posted this on another thread but it was at the end of the thread, so I'll say it again.
My family is contemplating using the cover for either a dartboard backing, or toilet paper.
My family is contemplating using the cover for either a dartboard backing, or toilet paper.
Interested in your danger statement, what leads you to that other than his horific decision making skills?
For HailtoPurple;
You may not have noticed the description of the article on the overleaf -"Doctoral candidate Tabor Whitney is collecting feces from endangered monkeys . . . ."
Perhaps the previous article should be included in her collection of monkey $hit.
You may not have noticed the description of the article on the overleaf -"Doctoral candidate Tabor Whitney is collecting feces from endangered monkeys . . . ."
Perhaps the previous article should be included in her collection of monkey $hit.
I did think the cover photo was suitable for framing or other uses.
Home
Northwestern Magazine is the alumni magazine for Northwestern University. It is circulated to all undergraduate, graduate and professional school alumni; faculty and staff; and parents of undergraduate students.
magazine.northwestern.edu
The hard copy one has Schill on the cover with an overly forced smile. Looks like (and is) a total douche
What I fear is that he is going to use his position as President to make radical changes to the univesity in the name and cause of social justice.
He has already made comments and hints to that effect and I see no way to prevent him from taking it as far as he likes.
When you look at his personality profile he is very driven and high energy. So if he has a cause and a goal to achieve he probably will manage to do it
Sometimes the little things are most telling.
I put together a reunion photo book and sent copies to both President Schill and Coach Fitzgerald since they were both prominently featured in it.
Coach Fitzgerald sent me a personalized note of thanks, I didn’t even get a Secretary signed acknowledgement from President Schill’s office. (I guess this was more surprising since in the past I had sent game photos to his predecessor and received a personal letter from the prior University President Morty Schapiro and even before that got a similar response from President Bienen.)
I have to add though that the best thanks I ever got for providing Game Photos was from Jim Phillips. He instructed his secretary to mail me a box of swag. I am still wearing some of that Northwestern gear.
I put together a reunion photo book and sent copies to both President Schill and Coach Fitzgerald since they were both prominently featured in it.
Coach Fitzgerald sent me a personalized note of thanks, I didn’t even get a Secretary signed acknowledgement from President Schill’s office. (I guess this was more surprising since in the past I had sent game photos to his predecessor and received a personal letter from the prior University President Morty Schapiro and even before that got a similar response from President Bienen.)
I have to add though that the best thanks I ever got for providing Game Photos was from Jim Phillips. He instructed his secretary to mail me a box of swag. I am still wearing some of that Northwestern gear.
I read it, mistake. He ain't going anywhere and nor is the AD. Good luck.
Kinda wish I hadn’t… I understand it’s an alumni magazine meant to paint Schill in a positive light but… eesh. Only solace I can take is that the quotes are entirely from his like-minded academic administrator types. This portion seems especially telling in light of recent events:
But he disliked the unpredictability of responding to client needs. And he missed getting lost in research. “I like to go very deep into issues,” he says, “and clients aren’t going to pay for someone to learn everything they want to learn before giving an opinion.”
I basically read that as “I like to take a purely academic approach, the real life consequences are secondary.” That’s… not ideal.
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It depends on what happens with the lolsuits he invited through his actions.
It’s hard to read anything he says or anyone says about him without thinking about how badly he botched the initial response (2 week meaningless suspension) and then crumbled under the pressure (firing).
I have no doubt that Schill is an extremely smart academic, but he shows no real world smarts or people skills. And that’s fine, not everyone is built the same way. The world needs people like that…But why is someone like that the president of a university? That makes no sense to me. Running a university is like being the CEO of a large company. You have to have a lot more skills than just “really good at school”. He just doesn’t seem like a good fit…but I’m sure the people who put him in that position are a lot more like him than most of us.
My wife and I (both alums) could not believe he was the cover story when we got our issue. The puff piece did nothing to improve my impression of him.
I’m doing reunion this year and contributed to the class gift. With the recent events and the admin response I feel this is a transition point where NU is more part of my past than my daily identity. It also coincides with my first kid applying to college, not likely going to NU - not likely to qualify by numbers but also not strongly interested in NU. And I will not have any $ to give to NU while kids are in college.
NU did not do much to sell itself on our campus visit, aside from the gleaming lakeside welcome center. I could have given a better campus tour with my eyes closed. Maybe the tours never recovered from COVID. They don’t need to sell themselves as they can pick from literally thousands of valedictorians with 1550 SATs.
I’m doing reunion this year and contributed to the class gift. With the recent events and the admin response I feel this is a transition point where NU is more part of my past than my daily identity. It also coincides with my first kid applying to college, not likely going to NU - not likely to qualify by numbers but also not strongly interested in NU. And I will not have any $ to give to NU while kids are in college.
NU did not do much to sell itself on our campus visit, aside from the gleaming lakeside welcome center. I could have given a better campus tour with my eyes closed. Maybe the tours never recovered from COVID. They don’t need to sell themselves as they can pick from literally thousands of valedictorians with 1550 SATs.
Dude didn’t read the report until after he announced the suspension. That seems perhaps like some research he should have gotten lost in.
Has always felt like a situation he thought he could simply make go away (perhaps because of how Gragg framed it?), then crumbled under public pressure.
The three main players exercised horrific judgment. They truly thought they could bury it on a Friday, and they truly thought that no further details would come out. That lasted about 24 hours.
It’s really a shame that the original report will never see the light of day.
Yeah, I thought about that, but some of us are tougher a$$hole$ than others.
Besides, the sacrifice would be for a good cause.
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Sounds as if he could just get rid of students, facility, alumni, and society, he would really like his job more. Of course, then he wouldn’t have a job - maybe something could be done about that
Gragg claimed the players and football coaches were tone- deaf. I think it is the BOT that is tone-deaf.
You are looking at about another 7-10 years with this guy and the AD. Schill lives in a bubble and athletics is outside that bubble.
Never before heard of a prick inside of a bubble.
I think I’d mostly be fine if Schill left Athletics alone (at least didn’t work against it), so long as Gragg is gone and a strong AD is hired in his place. Let the AD and Pat Ryan mostly run athletics/football.
I don’t think there’s a lot that needs to be “restored” across athletics, quite frankly. Besides football, pretty much everything else seems in pretty good shape aside from baseball (though Foster getting shit canned was clearly the right thing to do there)… and even then, football is on the precipice of building a ~$800MM stadium with no public funding, which will be the last step in fully modernizing football facilities.
The biggest thing that needs to happen is a solid long-term HC hire. Get that right, the football program is on pretty good footing and the whole athletic department is stabilized.
I agree with this, but also believe there needs to be an effort to make some advances in Admissions, NIL etc in order to fully stabilize. Doing things in a very public way to say we care about our revenue team’s performance and are focused on doing what it takes to be more than just competitive.
Have heard from more than a few people that further admissions concessions are off the table right now. If that’s the case, I would rather go all in on a strong AD who can at least modernize NIL.
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Sometimes the little things are most telling.
I put together a reunion photo book and sent copies to both President Schill and Coach Fitzgerald since they were both prominently featured in it.
Coach Fitzgerald sent me a personalized note of thanks, I didn’t even get a Secretary signed acknowledgement from President Schill’s office. (I guess this was more surprising since in the past I had sent game photos to his predecessor and received a personal letter from the prior University President Morty Schapiro and even before that got a similar response from President Bienen.)
I have to add though that the best thanks I ever got for providing Game Photos was from Jim Phillips. He instructed his secretary to mail me a box of swag. I am still wearing some of that Northwestern gear.
Embarrassing that you weren’t acknowledged for this effort.FWIW, some of the added pages:
He is mandating that everyone wear clean underwear on campus, and to facilitate enforcement, everyone must wear their underwear on the outside of their clothing. That explains why I saw Schill walk by with underpants on his head.
Retrieved my copy from the mail, saw Schill's mug on the cover, and promptly (as the British say) binned it.
