Taken from the mission statement off their website:
The first and last part is the part where someone not having completed a PhD may run into issues.
Northwestern is an elite research I university with high research/scholarship expectations of its tenure-track/tenured faculty, grad students…especially those at the doctoral level, and academic affiliates. Completing a Masters or few is nowhere near the same thing as completing a PhD.
What credibility would someone who has not paid his dues by completing a PhD, gone on the tenure track, and experience being subjected to the publish/perish norms to get on the tenure track/get tenured in the context of an elite research I U where “collaborative research” and “engaged scholarship” are emphasized would have over senior Profs and academic affiliates with such experience…especially decades worth of such?