When folks at Oregon sought a move to the Big Ten, this perhaps wasn’t what they had in mind.

University of Oregon president Michael H. Schill is leaving Eugene to become president of Northwestern University after seven years leading UO. Northwestern announced the news on Thursday, followed shortly thereafter by a letter from Ginevra Ralph, the chair of the UO Board of Trustees, to the Ducks’ community.

“President Schill has significantly propelled the university forward, and so it is no surprise that he would be recruited by one of the most prestigious academic research institutions in the world,” Ralph said.

Schill will begin at Northwestern in the fall. His selection comes 16 months after former Northwestern president Morton Schapiro announced his departure. Rebecca M. Blank was initially named as Schapiro’s successor in October of 2021, but in July of 2022 she announced that she’d been diagnosed with cancer and would be unable to fulfill her role as president.

Ralph says Oregon’s Board of Trustees will move “expeditiously” to appoint an interim president to begin service prior to the start of the new academic year. At the next regularly scheduled board meeting on September 15-16, trustees are expected to discuss the launch of and process for an international search for the university’s next permanent president.

“I am thrilled, honored, and humbled to join Northwestern, one of the world’s most prominent universities,” Schill said in a release. “Northwestern has a long tradition of educating the brightest minds and pushing the boundaries of research and innovation.”

The next UO president will be the university’s 19th. The Ducks will hope whoever it is can provide some stability. The next hire will be the fourth president the university has had since Oregon-native Dave Frohnmayer left the post in 2009.