After Harvard, Bill received a Ph.D. in Sociology from New York University in 1974. He received the Founders Day Award from New York University in 1974 for "consistent evidence of outstanding scholarship." Bill was a professor of African American Studies and Sociology at Northwestern from 1977 to 1986. His book, Paradoxes of Protest, is an analysis of Black student protest on the New York University campus during the 1960s.