Northwestern Nixes Appointment of War General to Buffett Institute Post

EVANSTON, IL - Northwestern has called off the appointment of a former Afghan war general to lead the school’s Buffett Institute for Global Studies after hundreds - including numerous University professors - signed a petition protesting the appointment.

President Morton Schapiro last year appointed Ret. Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, a former Ambassador to Afghanistan, to the post. A lengthy Change.org petition surfaced with information stating Eikenberry was unqualified for the post.

The petition - aimed at Schapiro and Provost Daniel Linzer - garnered 231 signatures and now includes the term “Victory!,” as the University officially called off the Eikenberry appointment last week.

The petition stated the Buffett Institute “is a multidisciplinary research institute with a broad mission to support Northwestern faculty and students in the humanities and social sciences engaging global research questions,” and is “without favor to U.S. business, military, and national foreign policy priorities.”

Art History professor Stephen Eisenman was one of 46 to show their disappointment in the Eikenberry appointment, telling the Chicago Reader the benefit of the Buffett Institute “has been the freedom faculty felt there, without any sense of a bureaucratic authority that might be shaping the conversations."

Specifically, the petition stated Eikenberry, a 35-year military veteran, did not have “a strong track record of significant and sustained research and publication in international affairs," as is required according to the official job description.

“Eikenberry has authored no double-blind peer-reviewed articles or books, and lacks a PhD; and whereas Eikenberry lacks a strong record of significant and sustained research and publication in international affairs.”

They claim Linzer and Schapiro made the appointment based only on government service experience, and not on academic credentials.

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