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Rep. Walberg says Mayor Daniel Biss failed ‘to protect Jewish students’ during pro-Palestinian protest
U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce Chairman Tim Walberg is investigating antisemitism on Northwestern University’s campus, including accusations that Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss refused to send police backup to a hostile pro-Palestinian encampment for political reasons.
Although Biss did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The College Fix, a spokesperson for Walberg said the mayor has been cooperating with the investigation.
The House committee “did get a response from Mayor Biss and he says he is willing to brief our team on his decision,” spokesperson Sara Robertson told The Fix in an email Wednesday.
“So our next step will be getting that scheduled. We’re glad to hear that Mayor Biss acknowledges that antisemitism is rising, but we hope he understands that progress starts with taking accountability,” she said.
The situation centers around events in April 2024 when, following suit with over 100 other campuses nationwide, a group of pro-Palestinian Northwestern students established an encampment on Deering Meadow, which lasted for five days.
In a Jan. 28 letter to Biss, Congressman Walberg described the encampment as “a hotbed of antisemitic harassment and hostility, including multiple alleged assaults and virulently antisemitic signage.”
The Michigan Republican criticized Biss for his “failure” to act when campus leaders asked for police backup. Walberg asked Biss to provide the committee with a briefing on “local law-enforcement coordination” between the City of Evanston and area colleges dealing with antisemitic activity.
“I write with grave concern regarding your failure to protect Jewish students at Northwestern University …by refusing to give the university the police support it desperately needed to clear its violent and antisemitic encampment in April 2024,” Walberg wrote.
In a recent report, The Daily Northwestern detailed correspondence between former university President Michael Schill and Northwestern’s Board of Trustees Chair Peter Barris regarding the 2024 encampment and the mayor’s refusal to send police to help.
Beginning April 26, 2024, just one day after the encampment began, Schill contacted Barris stating there were “too few police” to safely remove the encampment, according to the report.
To aid in the removal, Schill said he was relying on the Evanston Police Department, with an agreement having been made between the city and the university. That night, however, Mayor Biss contacted President Schill, informing him that police would not be sent, according to the Daily Northwestern.
“’You know, you can sue me if you want,’” Schill said Biss told him during their call, the report states.
Walberg’s letter also includes copies of several conversations between Northwestern’s leaders about Biss.
In one message to trustee Secretary Julie Allen, Schill wrote that others on the board “either knew or guessed that Biss wasn’t going to provide support for our police.”
In another exchange, Schill wrote that some trustees believed the mayor was trying to “shore up his progressive credentials.”
Biss is running for Congress as a Democratic candidate in the 2026 election cycle. The Fix contacted both his mayoral and campaign offices for comment on Feb. 10 and 16, asking about the letter and the reports that he refused to send police to the encampment, but he did not respond.
At a recent press conference, however, Biss described the investigation as “a dishonest political attack” and the encampment as peaceful, Northwestern’s student newspaper reports.
“… that attack is an effort to go at the right to peacefully protest. This is an effort to use the very real danger of antisemitism to advance a political agenda,” Biss said. “I will say that personally, as a Jewish person, as a grandson of Holocaust survivors, I find it deeply, deeply offensive.”
He also defended his decision not to send city officers to help campus police with the pro-Palestinian encampment.
“After meticulously assessing the situation through the lens of public safety and the right to peaceful protest, we came to that conclusion,” Biss said, according to the Daily Northwestern. “… I believe today it was the right decision.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. House leader’s investigation into the matter prompted praise from StandWithUs, an international organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism.
“StandWithUs applauds Chairman Tim Walberg for taking Northwestern University administration to task for not properly addressing antisemitism on its campus … as it failed to do against the 2024 encampments,” Yossi Held, executive director of StandWithUs Midwest, wrote in a recent email to The Fix.
Held said StandWithUs also sent a legal demand letter to Northwestern trustees in April 2024 in relation to the overall handling of the encampment.
The letter “suggests the removal of University leadership who enabled these actions, such as President Schill.”
“We are hopeful that this briefing will spur the administration to take its responsibilities seriously and finally create a safe learning environment for Jewish, pro-Israel and all students,” Held told The Fix.
The Fix also contacted several Jewish organizations on the Northwestern campus for comment about Biss and the U.S. House investigation, but none responded.
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