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“The documents also raise serious questions of whether Northwestern may have in fact acceded to this demand, and whether Schill knowingly misled Congress in his testimony,” it said.

Northwestern representatives said the institution stood behind Schill’s testimony and suggested the committee report “ignores the hard work” that has taken place since the protest.

The report shows university officials discussed conceding to the protestors’ demand to remove products from Sabra, an brand of hummus co-owned by an Israeli company.

It also criticizes two faculty members who participated in negotiations with the protestors, anthropology professor Jessica Winegar and management professor Nour Kteily, accusing them of sharing a common ideology in support of boycotting, divesting from and imposing sanctions on Israel, known as the BDS movement.

“One good out for divestment might be quietly finding an alternative to sabra hummus on campus when that contract expires. it’s a very sore spot for palestinians because it’s an israeli hummus brand that’s penetrated most college campuses and it touches on cultural appropriation themes,” Kteily said in a text message to Provost Kathleen Hagerty.

“That’s probably pretty easy,” Hagerty responded.

Kteily said he believed it would be symbolically valuable for the pro-Palestinian protestors and could be used to “trade off for meaningfully less on divestment,” one of the primary demands of the demonstrators.

“I’m all for making a deal,” Hagerty said. “Bargaining in action!”

The agreement between administrators and demonstrators that ended the encampment included a reference to dining halls.

Like most of the rest of the text of the deal — offers to “provide a conduit to engagement,” to “engage students in a process,” to “publicly condemn the doxing” — it consisted of a vague and non-binding pledge.

“The University will include students in a process dedicated to implementing broad input on University dining services, including residential and retail vendors on campus,” it said.

The Republican staff report described this as a “potential mechanism” for boycotting products from made in Israel or its occupied territories.

“Hagerty’s alarming support for boycotting Sabra brand hummus shows that she was willing to appease the encampment participants by granting them a major BDS victory. It also makes clear that she supported Kteily as he acted upon his previously expressed desire to deliver ‘amazing wins’ for students in the encampment,” the report said.

In a disputed account, the report alleges that administrators considered protestors’ demands to hire an “anti-Zionist rabbi,” despite Schill’s testimony before Congress flatly denying such a proposal was ever taken seriously.

“I would never hire anyone based upon their views of being Zionist or anti-Zionist,” Schill said in response to questioning from New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik. “That’s not what I do.”

“That’s not according to the whistleblowers who have come forward to this committee,” Stefanik said.

The staff report referenced the exchange from the university president’s May 27 testimony.

“While the veracity of Schill’s statement is unconfirmed, documents produced to the Committee suggest it was misleading at best,” the report said. “Schill and other Northwestern leaders not only actively considered the encampment leaders’ demand to hire an anti-Zionist rabbi, but they expressed particular concern and sensitivity to language in a draft agreement that could address this point. An honest and candid response to Congresswoman Stefanik’s question would have acknowledged this.”

The committee’s report cites text messages between Schill and Student Affairs Vice President Susan Davis on the night before the deal with demonstrators was finalized that indicate administrators were considering the demand.

“Don’t offer rabbi until we talk,” Schill told her.

In another message, the university president approved of the language in the agreement regarding on-campus religious organizations.

“The University will engage students in a process dedicated to ensuring additional support for Jewish and Muslim students within Student Affairs/Religious & Spiritual Life,” it said.

In a message to Northwestern Hillel Executive Director Michael Simon early on the morning that the deal was announced, Schill echoed his testimony to Congress: that the protestors lost out on all of their primary demands.

“The simple truth is that the protestors came to us with four main demands — divestment from Israel, no more Israeli products, a non-Zionist rabbi, and the end of the Israel Innovation Project [a collaboration between Northwestern and Israeli universities]. We said a definite no to all of them. We engaged them on things that we already were planning,” Schill said.

“The allegations in the report that the University ever seriously considered hiring an ‘anti-Zionist’ rabbi or boycotting any Israeli company are patently false,” a university spokesperson said in a since-deleted statement issued in response to the report.

“The University objects to the unfair characterizations of our Provost and valued members of our faculty based on isolated and out-of-context communications,” it said.

The committee report also highlights several incidents where Jewish students were harassed or felt unsafe on campus during the on-campus encampment.

Examples include a Jewish student journalist who was heckled by protestors who chanted “Shame” as he attempted to document the protest. Another Jewish student recording the protest was accosted by masked protestors who grabbed his camera.

Other Jewish students told committee members that protestors had spat at them while they walked past the encampment, according to the report.

“At the encampment, I was told to go back to Germany and get gassed,” said a Northwestern freshman. “I overheard in my dorm people talking about the white Jewish power on campus, and what we have to do to address this Jewish power.”

No students have faced any disciplinary actions for conduct related to the encampment, according to the report.

Seven students faced disciplinary probation — five of which for producing parody newspapers — and one faced a warning over a social media post saying the student was “going [to] start punching Zionists in the head.”

None have been suspended, according to a university disciplinary chart from last month cited in the committee’s report.

The report also discusses an external review of the Oct. 25, 2023, incident involving the distribution of parody copies of The Daily Northwestern student newspaper.

Because some were wrapped around the real newspapers, Northwestern’s private security force sought to pursue obscure criminal “theft of advertising services” charges of against the students on behalf of its nonprofit publisher.

After the public learned about the charges, the publisher pushed to withdraw the charges, and Cook County prosecutors agreed.

According to the House committee report, a review by outside lawyers to Northwestern’s civil rights counsel found the students held “antisemitic attitudes” and had no remorse for the protest.

“In an interview, one of the offending students acknowledged that the article compared hostages held by Hamas to plastic to-go containers from a cafeteria on campus,” the report said.

“Another one of the students claimed that ‘there’s no way that you can make a critique of the country that brands itself as the premier state for Jewish people without somebody being able to somehow claim that you’re targeting Jewish people’ and that Jewish support for Israel has ‘no religious foundation,” it continued. “Another offending student referred to Birthright trips taken by Jewish students as ‘the most common way for Northwestern students to be directly complicit’ in ‘Palestinian land…being taken.'”

University representatives said disciplinary procedures, the student code of conduct and other policies, have been “strengthened” since the spring protests “in order to provide clarity on permitted and prohibited behavior,” according to the statement.

“The University objects to the unfair characterizations of our Provost and valued members of our faculty based on isolated and out-of-context communications,” it said.

The committee’s final report follows a threat that university officials could be held in contempt of congress over allegations of obstructive behavior during its investigation.

Republican committee leaders cited delays and limited document production as evidence of “evasive and misleading” responses and accusing university officials of withholding key information.

The House report calls for a reassessment of federal funding to universities found to be in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

Committee Chair Rep. Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said that administrators had capitulated to “antisemitic mobs” who have taken over the nation’s top universities for the past year.

“Our investigation has shown that these ‘leaders’ bear the responsibility for the chaos likely violating Title VI and threatening public safety,” Foxx said in a statement. “It is time for the executive branch to enforce the laws and ensure colleges and universities restore order and guarantee that all students have a safe learning environment.”

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