Northwestern’s Center for Enlightened Disagreement Calls for Civil Dialogue. Its Co-Chair Negotiated on Behalf of Encampment Activists Who Called Jews Pigs.
In one of his last acts as president of Northwestern University, Michael Schill announced a $20-million gift for the school’s Litowitz Center for Enlightened Disagreement, located within the prestigious Kellogg School of Management, in an attempt to promote civil dialogue between students.
Founded in 2024 and renamed earlier this month after a gift from Northwestern trustee Jennifer Litowitz and her husband Alec, the center has the avowed goal of "expand[ing] extensive Kellogg research on methods for promoting dialogue among those with different perspectives and motivations." Given the center’s goals, some students have expressed surprise that one of the center's co-chairmen, Nour Kteily, offered fulsome praise for the students who pitched tents on Northwestern’s campus last spring to protest Israel’s war in Gaza and the school’s ties to the Jewish state.
Kteily, who took on the role of liaison between administrators and rogue students during the encampment, said in a text message he was "inspired by the students" and hoped he could "get some amazing wins for them," according to text messages obtained by the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
The students, who occupied Northwestern’s Deering Meadow for five days, were demanding the university sever all partnerships and programs with Israel and divest from the Jewish state.
Reports of incivility abounded. Students walking by the encampment reported activists in the encampment hurled insults like "dirty Jew" and "Zionist pig" in their direction, according to the Forward. Another student reported being told to "go back to Germany and get gassed," according to the House Committee on Education and Workforce, and a video captured a masked radical—donning a sweatshirt that bore the image of a Hamas terrorist—demanding a passerby state whether he spoke Hebrew. Another video showed an activist accosting a student who attempted to film the encampment.
The student activists also displayed a poster of Schill, who is Jewish, with devil horns and drops of blood. Another poster featured a crossed-out Star of David.
Northwestern is also facing a lawsuit from a student who alleges a protester accosted her friend with a sign as others jeered "burn in hell" as they chased her from the encampment area.
Neither Kteily nor Northwestern responded to Washington Free Beacon requests for comment on whether they consider this behavior consistent with the atmosphere of civility the Center for Enlightened Disagreement is meant to foster, or on Kteily’s characterization of the activists as inspirational.
"A university should foster dialogue across differences when it is rooted in respect and accountability," Michael Teplitsky, president of the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern, told the Free Beacon. "But Northwestern’s decision to elevate Professor Nour Kteily as the face of this effort undermines its credibility and turns what could have been a constructive initiative into another exercise in reputational damage control."
As he worked to resolve the standoff between the student activists and university administrators, Kteily suggested mollifying the protesters by "quietly finding an alternative to sabra hummus," an Israeli hummus served on many college campuses. "Symbolically it’d be quite valuable for [the activists]," he wrote to Northwestern provost Kathleen Hagerty.
The agreement Kteily helped to negotiate also included the creation of five full-ride scholarships for students from Gaza each year and two teaching positions for Palestinian academics, provisions legal experts at the time said were likely illegal. The first faculty slot went to Mkhaimar Abusada, who, as the Free Beacon previously reported, serves on the boards of two organizations that maintain close ties to terror groups like Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The $20-million gift for the Center for Enlightened Disagreement, unveiled just before Schill resigned, comes as Northwestern’s board attempts to find a new president. Henry Bienen, who served as president from 1995 to 2009, stepped into the role as an interim leader on Sept. 16.
The post Northwestern’s Center for Enlightened Disagreement Calls for Civil Dialogue. Its Co-Chair Negotiated on Behalf of Encampment Activists Who Called Jews Pigs. appeared first on .