* I saw lots of stories during the break about Northwestern University agreeing to pay the federal government $75 million to get out of some legal hot water, but I haven’t seen many reports that actually detail what’s in the agreement. Click here for some insight into that, and click here for the actual agreement.
Gov. Pritzker is not just one of the state’s most outspoken Trump critics, he’s also a Northwestern law grad who, along with his spouse, donated $100 million to what is now the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.
Isabel and I were both curious what he thought about the agreement, so she brought it up at today’s press conference…
Isabel: What’s your reaction to Northwestern agreeing to a settlement that adopts Trump-era definitions of sex and gender and restricts gender affirming care for minors? Do you believe the university should accept the terms? And are you concerned about the precedent this could set for other Illinois institutions?
Pritzker: I don’t think the universities should be capitulating to the extortion that’s being brought upon them by the federal administration. Period. End of sentence. Any university.
I am, you know, of the belief that every time a university signs an agreement based upon this extortion that they’re whittling away just a little bit at the democracy that I think we’ve all relied upon. So I understand what the challenges are for universities, that they’re having hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe even more than a billion dollars, taken away from them, each one. These are research institutions that all of us rely upon, by the way, for their medical research and other work that often leads to, well, groundbreaking life-saving solutions to problems in the world.
But we are, as each day goes by and as each university battles with these questions, we face the, problem of the truly existential nature of the challenge that’s before them and before us as a result.
* Isabel also asked Pritzker if he’d met with Northwestern’s president. He said he did. She asked some follow-ups to her follow-up…
Isabel: What was that conversation like?
Pritzker: I expressed what I said to you about universities and the extortion that the federal government is bringing upon them.
Isabel: Did he offer any apologies?
Pritzker: I think he expressed what I think most people in his position might say, which is the pressure that’s being put on universities today is massive. And if you think about what they were attempting to do in the face of having more than $700 million taken away from them from the federal government. Remember, we’re all for efficiency in the federal government, and you know, if you can spend less money and get the same or better results, great. That’s not what the Trump administration is doing. They’re trying to effectuate policies that are not law by taking grants away and holding the university hostage, and forcing them, therefore, to sign an agreement that might have things in it that aren’t even in the law and that the university may not want to or may not believe in, in order to get the hundreds of millions.
Why is that important to a university? Well, you can imagine you’ve got scientists that you’ve attracted to R1 institutions. These are the best research institutions in the country, and they are in danger of losing those people to foreign governments, to foreign universities, or just competitive universities.
I want them to stay in Illinois. But again, I understand the pressure that’s on them. I just feel like every day democracy is slipping away whenever any of us capitulate in any significant fashion.
- Earnest - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 11:54 am:
I agree with Pritzker feeling the slipping away of democracy. It also slips away when we don’t have journalists who ask the follow up question and political leaders who evade them in both passive and aggressive ways. Happy this was not the case here.
- Thomas Paine - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 12:09 pm:
This is much more of a defining moment for Biss than for JB.
As mayor, Biss has partnered with the university extensively.
He is going to have to come out 110% against this deal, Kat sure will.
The Federal Government came for the non-binary, and Northwestern handed them over. I get that $700M is a “hit.” I also get that $700M is only 5% of their endowment, and there are lots of ways to fill budget gaps if you are blacklisted by the feds. There is no way to fix your branding except to terminate the leadership of the school, and do it quick.
The Pritzkers - as donors - should be ashamed to have their name spread all over that campus. I would say “I totally appreciate that you feel you had to capitulate. I hope you can appreciate I don’t want my name on a law school whose lawyers are capitulating to a despot. Please take my name off the Law School until you grow a pair.”
Democrats are not going to forget which university sold them out when deciding where to send their own kids.
- Pundent - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 12:11 pm:
I never thought I’d see a day where the President of the United States would be extorting our public universitities and they would be willingly paying the ransom. Alumni should take note.
- Frida's Boss - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 12:20 pm:
Rich liberals stating we have to fight takes out the metric that most of the folks they’re asking to fight don’t have the comfort to maintain a fight. It’s easy to say hold out until the end when your pocketbook isn’t on the front line. Poor people can’t wait for SNAP money to feed their families for a political fight. A University that has millions in scientific grant funding tied up can’t wait for Democrat leadership to figure out how to message and win a fight.
- Excitable Boy - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 12:25 pm:
Pritzker is absolutely right. The cowardice of elites like this university president is exactly why it’s hard to stop the slide into authoritarianism.
- Bored Chairman - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 12:36 pm:
Then again, the University could comply with the Supreme Court’s decision to end racial preferences in admissions, and actually stop antisemites from terrorizing Jewish students. Or they could stop taking federal money and do whatever they want.
- Andrea Durbin - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 12:38 pm:
Appeasing a bully never works. I am so disappointed in my alma mater.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 12:40 pm:
= Or they could stop taking federal money and do whatever they want.=
It is funny that you think that would matter to this administration.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 12:45 pm:
===He is going to have to come out 110% against this deal===
He already did. Before offering advice, maybe use the Bing/Google machines?
- Excitable Boy - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 1:05 pm:
- Rich liberals stating we have to fight takes out the metric that most of the folks they’re asking to fight don’t have the comfort to maintain a fight. -
Rich liberals are typically the most unwilling to fight because they can’t stand the thought of losing their status in life. Hence the capitulation of Northwestern leadership.
- Formerly Unemployed - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 1:14 pm:
What’s the point of the endowment? Even though much of the money is restricted, not all of it is, and it’s possible to borrow against it at favorable interest rates. NU and the other big universities have argued that they need these funds in the event of an existential crisis. Well, they are facing one, and they are caving. I’m another unhappy alum.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 1:29 pm:
===What’s the point of the endowment?===
Do you know how big an endowment you’d have to have to generate $800 million per year to replace these federal research funds? No university has that kind of endowment.
The university can be right to stand on principle and refuse this demand. And then it can watch as its research capacity collapses, faculty and top students leave, and its prestige decline. It’s possible to be right and dead at the same time.
Keep the anger focused where it belongs: on the criminal Trump administration. Northwestern did what Brown University and others have done. They survived the crisis by paying the ransom.
(Also, I commented something similar earlier on another thread but it is stuck in moderation. Pardon the repetitive post).
- 40,000 ft - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 1:30 pm:
Did anybody read the Agreement, it’s brilliant.
Bored Chairman is exactly right. And anyone that stands against this Agreement and says “democracy is slipping away,” is playing games with the rowdies in the bleachers.
By being again this Agreement…
-Pritzker and Biss are against individuals, in protected classes (race, sex, religion, etc), living their life and being free from harassing student conduct due to their religion, sex, or race.
-Pritzker and Biss are pro discrimination, based on class and not merit, regarding admissions, faculty, etc.
-Pritzker and Biss are also not reading the sections on National Security for international students and the ACA with regard to minors.
Harmeet Dhillon is a force for fairness and individual rights. I’m thankful for her fierce voice. There are millions of individuals that are glad someone is speaking up and defending the XX women, the religious, and all the races.
Bienen was smart to sign and pay the settlement.
Pritzker is getting bad advice again — crying about “democracy” when these are obviously moral and legal issues.
- Iron Duke - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 1:38 pm:
So you want them to forgo 750 million and tap their 14.3 billion dollar endowment instead of paying 75 million?
Math is hard but not that hard.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 1:41 pm:
===instead of paying 75 million?===
Not sure whom you were referring to, but there’s much more than just money involved here.
- Pundent - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 1:47 pm:
=Math is hard but not that hard.=
I’m fine with Northwestern dropping their moral compas and telling their students, alumni, and donors that this was nothing more than a business decision. I’m also fine with the inevitable backlash and financial consequences that come with that. And I won’t have any tolerance for the mea culpa that will inevitable follow this decision. Northwestern has told us exactly who they are as an institution. It’s a memory that will not be easly erased and one which they will pay dearly for. Math not being hard and all.
- Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 1:56 pm:
NU’s capitulation is concerning, but Texas has taken public higher ed well beyond. Yesterday, a memo was shared with all faculty in the Texas Tech University system. Faculty are required to prescreen course content and submit courses with potentially proscribed content to admin for prior approval.
The new Chancellor, Brandon Creighton, was the leader of the Texas Senate until he became Chancellor this fall. Wikipedia provides a summary of his recent legislation impacting higher ed in Texas: In 2023, Creighton authored SB 17 which prohibited diversity, equity, and inclusion activities at Texas public institutions of higher education. This bill resulted in the termination of programs such as the multicultural engagement, support for undocumented students, and gender & sexuality centers, and hundreds of jobs were slashed across Texas public colleges and universities in response. In 2025, he authored Senate Bill 37 which promotes censorship of topics (such as race and gender) in core courses of higher education.
https://www.tpr.org/news/2025-12-02/texas-tech-system-chancellor-releases-race-and-gender-standards-for-classroom-instruction
- Roadrager - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 1:58 pm:
==-Pritzker and Biss are against individuals, in protected classes (race, sex, religion, etc), living their life and being free from harassing student conduct due to their religion, sex, or race.==
If you want to make sense of this comment in the context of the story and praise for the Trump protection racket, you need to understand that the poster has a specific religion, specific sex, and specific race in mind when they say it.
- Hail to Purple, Hail to White??? - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:00 pm:
Something has been wrong at the Evanston campus for a long time. The leadership of the university has been cowardly for the past several years.
I was disappointed in Northwestern for firing its head football coach without bothering to conduct a serious investigation. Long afterwards, the university paid Pat Fitzgerald the balance of his contract and admitted that Northwestern never had any firm evidence that he had done anything wrong.
Today, Fitzgerald is going to conduct a press conference at Michigan State University where he will coach the Spartans.
- Amalia - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:05 pm:
the settlement for the protest site on the campus was done quickly and fairly. I thought it was handled well. but now that settlement is walked back. the Islamic student building is in process. will it still happen? the protest would have gone on much longer had the then President not quickly acted. this was not like what happened at other universities. but between a very loud parents group that goes beyond basic wishes to fight anti semitism and alums who seem to ignore the settlement paid out to 34 hazing victims & yearn for days of coaching before that the President was hounded out. also why did the Univesity not craft a settlement as one other university is doing, to direct where the money goes? if an institution has to bow to the nasty demands of the dear leader at least get a win on where the money goes.
- Excitable Boy - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:08 pm:
- And then it can watch as its research capacity collapses, faculty and top students leave, and its prestige decline. -
Who says that isn’t going to happen now? Trump isn’t going to be in charge forever, if we remain a democracy anyway.
- Alton Sinkhole - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:17 pm:
== Today, Fitzgerald is going to conduct a press conference at Michigan State University where he will coach the Spartans.==
I don’t think the MSU athletic department should be one you look to for moral guidance. Nassar, Tucker, and a really terrible record n investigating harassment claims.
Not saying Fitzgerald did anything on that level, certainly nothing as bad as that human monster Nassar, but MSU’s leadership, particularly in athletics, is not an example we should aim to follow
- Amalia - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:18 pm:
Important note, I believe that Isabel is a graduate of the graduate school of Journalism at Northwestern. way to show out your education, Isabel. rock on.
- Socially DIstant Watcher - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:19 pm:
I don’t know aboit rich white liberals, but anyone who longs to see a post Trump America has to think about how to unwind deals like this one. It can’t be as quick as just tearing up the paper. It’s got to include protections so that every election isn’t followed by new rounds of extortion and norm changing.
How does society protect against this in the future? It’s not even one year and this is the carnage he’s brought.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:21 pm:
A key point in all this is the lack of fact-finding or evidence of any kind. The administration merely makes allegations against a university and imposes massive financial penalties, as well as operational requirements.
It’s not just guilty until proved innocent, it’s just guilty because we say so. If any university has violated any law or grant obligations, provide the evidence. It’s all very unAmerican.
- Incandenza - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:32 pm:
It’s all very unAmerican.
And can we for a minute just imagine what the reaction in popular media and on the right would be if a President Obama had extorted large conservative organizations and universities like this?
- ArchPundit - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:46 pm:
===Pritzker and Biss are pro discrimination, based on class and not merit, regarding admissions, faculty, etc
See, this is a good test if you would qualify for Northwestern. A person who understands math might notice that the difference between percentiles for those at the 75 and 25 percentile is maybe 1 percentile and that trying to distinguish racial bias in that case is a fool’s errand. The score differences within those percentiles that close cannot distinguish a significant difference between groups of students. Some of us have even done that kind of statistical work on student scores and we laugh at those who think they know what they are talking about when claiming racial bias.
Then there are people who love going on such errands.
- H-W - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:50 pm:
As a professor, I can understand why Northwestern capitulated. Regardless of theoretical positions, faculty exist in reality. They are hired to do research, and must do research. Faculty cannot wait three more years for a new president, pray that new president is not a Republican, and then renew their research projects. This is particularly true with regard to medical research, but applies to all grant-funded research. Faculty are on time lines that assume six productive years to tenure, and at R-1 universities, the competition of publishing in top-tier research journals is very keen. Delayed funding is denying careers.
As far as 40,000 ft. comments, clearly their is little oxygen up there. Your praise of the “agreement” is lunacy. I read it. You are nuts.
There are contradictions within the agreement, beginning with the assertion that all individuals are equally protected, and the idea expressed herein that Jewish people are somehow first among equals. It is also contradictory to suggest protest is allowed, but cannot occur almost anywhere except off campus. And it is contradictory to suggest that people can protest but they cannot protest against other people, nor offend people. Free speech is not so limited by the Constitution, but by tyrants. There are other serious abdications of freedom throughout this “agreement.”
That said, I understand the need to move forward now, and pray for a better future that contradicts the current moment. It is only college students who will bear the burden of a restricted education, and only for three years.
- H-W - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:52 pm:
I also want to say Pritzker is absolutely correct in his assessment, and the President of Northwestern is making the best choice here. It is Trump who is the evil one in this.
- DarkestBeforeDawn - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 2:52 pm:
@Bored Chairman “Then again, the University could comply with the Supreme Court’s decision to end racial preferences in admissions, and actually stop antisemites from terrorizing Jewish students.”
Do you have any evidence for the smearing in your second claim? Or do you just paint anyone standing up against the genocide in Palestine as a raging antisemite?
- Keyrock - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 3:16 pm:
One of the many, many unusual things about this agreement is that the $75 million payment has no relationship to any damages suffered by the government - or anyone else. It’s pure extortion.
It’s also, effectively, a bribe paid to Trump, though the money goes to the Treasury (unlike some of his other “settlements”).
Capitulation to bullies is shameful when an institution has the capacity to resist - by litigation and otherwise. Pritzker is entirely correct.
- West Side the Best Side - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 3:32 pm:
How is what the feds are doing here to Northwestern any different from being pulled over by a cop who mentions that he hasn’t had dinner yet and when you slip him some cash he lets you go from what was probably a bogus stop to begin with? The only difference I can see is a lot of language from a law talking guy like Lionel Hutz.
- Hail to Purple, Hail to White??? - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 3:45 pm:
To be clear, I never defended Michigan State University nor would I. I only referred to the fact that Fitzgerald accepted a job there. The dismissal of Fitzgerald, in hind sight, was not a proud moment in Evanston.
- DarkestBeforeDawn - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 4:01 pm:
@ Hail to Purple, Hail to White??? “The dismissal of Fitzgerald, in hind sight, was not a proud moment in Evanston.”
As a NU alum, I am less proud of the hazing that took place under Fitz’ watch than of his unceremonious departure.
- Amalia - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 4:11 pm:
Hail to Purple, Hail to White??? and DarkestBeforeDawn today remember that in May Northwestern University settled with 34 victims of hazing, which even the know nothing coach acknowledged happened under his watch as he said that he learned it during discovery.(why he had to say this in his statement upon his settlement is really interesting.) the brave victims who came in front of cameras revealing themselves to the world endured on line hate. still do. it’s shameful. read today’s Sullivan column in Tribune sports for a scathing assessment of the coach who somehow knew nothing. and never came in front of cameras post suspension or firing as the victims did.
- Iron Duke - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 4:24 pm:
There was no evidence that Coach Fitzgerald knew about or condoned the hazing.
That is why the University settled his $130 million dollar lawsuit for wrongful termination, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
You either believe in due process or you don’t, it’s not supposed to be situational.
- Amalia - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 4:54 pm:
@Iron Duke, when someone is in charge of something and they don’t know about something terrible happening in their midst, they wear the firing jacket. the University president clearly did not act fast enough. and people forget the victims exist. that is far more important than any coach.
- Honeybear - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 5:10 pm:
I have to say I wish my Alma mater had not capitulated. That being said I don’t know the extent of what was on the line. I mean we’ve got base numbers but only the board and leadership knows.
Question, if there’s another administration after this can Northwestern sue the government to get it back?
- Roadrager - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 6:45 pm:
==There was no evidence that Coach Fitzgerald knew about or condoned the hazing.==
Fitzgerald’s entire schtick while at NU was that he was building a culture and doing things the right way from the top down. That even though the results might not look like Alabama on the field, they would build strong men of character off of it, which was more important.
That culture which Fitzgerald took full credit for was undeniably rife with abusive sexual hazing which Fitzgerald either willfully turned a blind eye to or lacked the competence to recognize and remove from his program.
Meanwhile, on the field, the Wildcats went 4-20 in his final two seasons.
Coaches own.
- Ares - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 6:46 pm:
The decision was likely not by NU’s president, it was by the Trustees controlling the Board of Trustees, at least some profiting handsomely under current White House policies. Add in an 80-something caretaker university president accustomed to faculty politics, and not all-out war, plus a nine-figure million tab for a new football field, and the outcome is not surprising. Gov JB deserves a lot of credit for his generous donation, w a substantial part going to need based aid for law students.
- Pundent - Tuesday, Dec 2, 25 @ 6:54 pm:
=There was no evidence that Coach Fitzgerald knew about or condoned the hazing.=
The NCAA, who I have little respect for, often uses the term “lack of institutional oversight” when handing out sanctions. I think that phrase can be used for any number of problems at NU today. From the hazing allegations, the handling of Pat Fitzgerald’s departure/settlement, and the Trump settlement. The leadership clearly has a problem with University oversight. And their decision to settle this most recent issue has to be looked at through that lens. There’s a disturbing pattern at play here.