THE ATLANTIC
The Elite-University Presidents Who Despise One Another
Rose Horowitch
August 11, 2025

The leaders of America’s elite universities are required, by the borderline-masochistic, semi-impossible nature of their job, to be skilled in the art of performative comity. So it was a bit of a shock when, at the end of an April panel discussion, Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber turned on the chancellors of Vanderbilt and Washington University in St. Louis, all but accusing them of carrying water for the Trump administration. Eisgruber argued that higher education was facing a politically motivated attack, and that the two men were inadvertently making matters worse by agreeing with President Donald Trump, against the evidence, that the sector had grown illiberal and out of touch with mainstream America. The chancellors, taken aback by the public confrontation, countered that the struggles of a handful of Ivy League schools were dragging down the reputation of America’s heavyweight research institutions. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Northwestern President Michael Schill resigns after tenure rocked by protests, $800M Trump funding freeze, hazing scandal Northwestern University president Michael Schill has resigned following a tumultuous tenure marked by a hazing scandal, calls for resignation over campus antisemitism and nearly $800 million in funds frozen by the Trump administration…During a series of tense exchanges, panel members, including House Republican conference chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY), ripped Schill for receiving an “F” grade in fighting antisemitism from the Anti-Defamation League, which has called for his ouster.