University President Morton Schapiro tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday night, Northwestern announced Wednesday. Schapiro was originally supposed to appear at New York Will. Celebrate, a Thursday event in New York, N.Y. celebrating the conclusion of We Will. The Campaign for Northwestern. However, on Wednesday afternoon, attendees received an email announcing that the event had.
University President Morton Schapiro discussed Mike Polisky’s promotion and resignation as athletic director and his hopes for future leadership in a Wednesday Faculty Assembly meeting.
Schapiro spoke in the second half of the meeting, after a panel discussion on Northwestern’s fall reopening plans. Faculty Senate President Therese McGuire moderated the conversation, asking Schapiro questions submitted ahead of time by faculty.
McGuire said many questions submitted pertained to Polisky, who was named a defendant in a federal lawsuit concerning sexual harassment in NU’s cheerleading program.
“The allegations from the current former cheerleaders of racism and sexism were very sad and painful,” McGuire said.
Members of The Daily’s editorial board sat down with University President Morton Schapiro
last week to discuss Greek life deactivations, standardized testing requirements for undergraduate admissions and his goals for his final year as president. University spokesperson Jeri Ward was present. This interview was lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
The Daily: The University recorded zero cases from May 14 to 20. What is your biggest takeaway from how the community responded to the pandemic?
Schapiro: If there are any safer communities in the world, it’s Evanston, Northwestern campus and Streeterville. I really give the credit to the students, faculty, staff, everybody else, but it’s really the students who behaved in an incredible way.
University administrators announced plans for in-person instruction in Fall Quarter and are still considering a vaccination mandate. Currently, less than half of faculty and staff are vaccinated, they reported at a Thursday event.
University President Morton Schapiro, Provost Kathleen Hagerty, Vice President for Operations Luke Figora and senior administrators discussed campus return strategy and vaccinations in Thursday’s “Conversation with the President and University Leadership” event. The over 400 community members in attendance could ask panelists questions via the chat function on Zoom.
University leadership shared that Northwestern plans on in-person instruction in the fall. Summer term classes, at this time, are set to be held remotely with some socially distanced in-person research and other activities.