Northwestern football hazing fallout brings calls to halt $800 million Ryan Field rebuild
The Northwestern football hazing scandal and the fumbled firing of head coach Pat Fitzgerald have brought new calls to reassess the athletic culture at the Big Ten school, and at least temporarily halt the proposed $800 million rebuild of Ryan Field.
While some Evanston neighbors have voiced concerns about noise and congestion at the new stadium, opposition may be coalescing around the larger issue of whether Northwestern needs a new home for its football program, or just a thorough housecleaning.
“If we invest $800 million in a new football stadium, that will distract university leaders’ attention from the most urgent problem that is in front of them, which is what seems to be a culture problem in Northwestern athletics,” Caitlin Fitz, a Northwestern history professor, said Tuesday. “I think we need to get our own house in order first, before we put $800 million into building a new one.”
Fitz is one of six faculty members who sent a letter Monday to Northwestern President Michael Schill, athletic director Derrick Gragg and board chair Peter Barris, asking the stadium rebuild be put on hold in the wake of the hazing scandal. Community groups, students and others have expressed similar sentiments.
The fallout from the fast-moving situation has been dizzying, and potentially devastating to the private, academically elite university, which has had several high-profile stumbles in recent years as it aspires to compete at the highest level of college athletics.
In a matter of days, Schill went from announcing a two-week suspension for Fitzgerald related to alleged incidents of player hazing fleshed out in an independent investigation, to admitting he “may have erred” in meting out sanctions. On Monday, Schill informed the winningest football coach in Northwestern history he was “being relieved of his duties” effective immediately, according to an open letter posted on the university’s website.
“Ultimately, the decision to originally suspend coach Fitzgerald was mine and mine alone, as is the decision to part ways with him,” Schill said in his letter.
A Northwestern spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Northwestern announced plans for the privately funded Ryan Field rebuild in 2022. The modern stadium would include a canopy to reduce noise and light pollution, better sight lines, chair backs instead of benches and 35,000 seats — 12,000 fewer than the current Ryan Field, which would be demolished.
In addition to football games, the new stadium would host concerts and community events, an area of concern for neighbors worried about increased noise and traffic.
The primary benefactor of the new stadium is billionaire Patrick Ryan, founder and retired CEO of Aon Corp. and a Northwestern alumnus. The Ryan family donated $480 million in 2021 — the largest gift in Northwestern history — in large part to help build the stadium.
A Ryan spokesperson said he was out of the country and not available for comment Tuesday.
Plans called for the new stadium to be opened by 2026, pending approval by the city of Evanston. As of Tuesday, those plans are still moving forward, according to City Manager Luke Stowe.
“At this time, the city is not aware of any changes by Northwestern University related to the Ryan Field proposal,” Stowe said in an email. “The Ryan Field application is tentatively scheduled for Land Use Commission consideration on Aug. 9, 2023.”
The football hazing scandal is the latest high-profile misstep for the Northwestern athletic program. In 2021, Northwestern cheerleader Hayden Richardson filed a federal lawsuit alleging she and other cheerleaders were sexually exploited and forced to mingle with fans and donors. In May, Michael Polisky, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, resigned as athletic director under growing pressure from students, faculty and community members — nine days after being promoted to the position.
Northwestern quickly named Gragg as its new athletic director, filling the void left by the departure of Jim Phillips, who left after 13 years in the role to become commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Adding to the tumult, as the football hazing scandal unfolded this week, revelations about alleged bullying and abusive behavior by first-year Northwestern head baseball coach Jim Foster surfaced as well.
The Northwestern Accountability Alliance, a coalition of community and student groups, issued a statement Tuesday decrying the university’s “racist and sexist” track record within the athletic department and calling for a temporary halt to the stadium project.
“We hope university leaders reassess their approach toward students and the broader community and start to engage in a spirit of genuine respect and transparency,” the group said. “In the meantime, until they take appropriate action, Northwestern needs to put the Ryan Field proposals on hold.”
The six faculty members sent the letter requesting the Ryan Field rebuild be put on hold Monday — before the announced firing of Fitzgerald. They also recounted the recent history of troubles within the athletic department as a reason to halt the project.
“I think the faculty members are confused as to where the money’s coming from,” said Chicago-based sports business consultant Marc Ganis. “This is a directed contribution from the Ryan family just for the stadium. It’s not like these resources can be applied to something else.”
Ganis said the new stadium is decades overdue and crucial if Northwestern wants to be competitive in the Big Ten. He believes the Ryan family will remain committed to the project, despite the hazing allegations and the firing of the school’s most successful football coach.
While Ganis said major college sports budgets have “gotten out of control” in the new millennium, they create revenue that supports the broader institution, including academics. Sports also bring together alumni in a common pursuit and engender donations.
The $480 million Ryan donation, for example, also includes gifts to fund biomedical, economics and business research at Northwestern.
“The academic side can sometimes be shortsighted about these things,” Ganis said. “They don’t understand how athletics are used to generate the money that in many cases pays their own salaries.”
The firing of Fitzgerald, Ganis said, may prove to be a costly mistake for the athletic program and the university at large.
Beyond potentially alienating deep-pocketed donors, Ganis said the threats of legal action by Fitzgerald, who said in a statement that he had hired high-powered Chicago-based attorney Dan Webb to protect his rights, might claw back much of a 10-year, $57 million contract extension the coach signed with Northwestern in 2021.
Ganis agrees with faculty critics, however, that the university’s waffling over the decision to fire Fitzgerald was a public relations disaster that reflects badly on the new president, who assumed the role in September, succeeding Morton Schapiro. Schill, who previously served as president of the University of Oregon and dean of the University of Chicago Law School, was Northwestern’s second choice after president-elect Rebecca Blank was forced to step aside due to illness.
Blank died in February.
History professor Fitz said part of the problem with Northwestern’s response to the hazing scandal may be that the top decision-makers at the university are all men.
“Northwestern is far behind its peers in having women in positions of leadership,” Fitz said. “I think it is an open question whether having more women in the room during these conversations might have led to a different outcome.”
The confidential investigation into the matter, which has only been released in an executive summary, needs to be made public, Fitz said, so that the community at large can judge whether the administration had enough information to fire Fitzgerald — before additional reporting by the Daily Northwestern raised the pressure.
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, a political science and religious studies professor, and a signatory on the faculty letter calling for a halt to the Ryan Field project, said she was “really disappointed” in Schill’s response, and what she called efforts to sweep the situation under the rug.
She said the decision to fire Fitzgerald should have been an easy call for Schill.
“If I were to take my international relations class and have them get naked, and run around and brush into each other with shaving cream on, I would lose my job,” she said. “It doesn’t even seem very complicated. Let’s hold everyone to the same standard, and let’s clean it up.”
