\n<\/p>\n
The critical letter focuses on the mayor\u2019s response to a pro-Palestinian encampment at Northwestern in 2024.<\/p>\n
eyfoto\/iStock\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Rep. Tim Walberg, chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, wants to have a briefing with the mayor of Evanston, Ill., regarding his decision not to help dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment at Northwestern University in April 2024.<\/p>\n
Walberg, a Republican, requested the briefing in a Jan. 28 letter to Mayor Daniel Biss, which included 13 pages of communications among then\u2013Northwestern president Michael Schill and university trustees as well as between Schill and Biss.<\/p>\n
At multiple points, Schill discusses his intention to arrest protesters but adds that there aren\u2019t enough campus police officers to do so. Later, Schill says that a trustee, Michael Sacks, believed the mayor wouldn\u2019t provide additional police support and would \u201ctell folks to shore up his progressive credentials.\u201d\u00a0In a record of a different conversation, Sacks wrote, \u201cI know Biss well. If the wind blows in the wrong way he will throw you under the bus. No hesitation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schill previously told the House committee that Biss declined to provide Evanston police officers to clear the encampments despite a mutual aid agreement between the city and Northwestern.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018You know, you can me sue me if you want,\u2019\u201d Schill said, according to a transcript released by the House committee.<\/p>\n
Walberg accused Biss, a Democrat who is running for Congress, of failing to protect Jewish students at Northwestern. The requested briefing will \u201caid the Committee in considering whether potential legislative changes, including legislation to specifically address antisemitic discrimination, are needed,\u201d according to the letter.<\/p>\n
Biss defended his decision not to intervene at a press conference Thursday, according to The <\/em>Daily Northwestern<\/em>, and said it was not politically motivated. He did, however, call Walberg\u2019s letter \u201ca dishonest political attack.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut we are here today because 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,\u201d Biss said, as reported by the student newspaper. \u201cI will say that, personally, as a Jewish person, as a grandson of Holocaust survivors, I find it deeply, deeply offensive.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The critical letter focuses on the mayor\u2019s response to a pro-Palestinian encampment at Northwestern in 2024. eyfoto\/iStock\/Getty Images Rep. Tim Walberg, chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, wants to have a briefing with the mayor of Evanston, Ill., regarding his decision not to help dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment at Northwestern University in April<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[22695,4514,11721,494,1226,22694],"class_list":{"0":"post-43379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-evanston","9":"tag-mayor","10":"tag-northwestern","11":"tag-protests","12":"tag-questions","13":"tag-walberg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}