Lawyers for all sides involved with the Rashidi Wheeler lawsuit will meet in the near future to discuss terms for a possible settlement, a Northwestern spokesman said.

Alan Cubbage, NU’s vice president for university relations, said the settlement meetings were a change from the activities of the past year and a half.

Wheeler, who was a safety on NU’s football team, collapsed during a preseason workout on Aug. 3, 2001, and died. A few weeks later, his family sued head coach Randy Walker, Director of Athletics Rick Taylor and six others in a wrongful death lawsuit.

The following April, NU pulled into the lawsuit five pharmaceutical companies that produced and sold dietary supplements containing the NCAA-banned substance ephedrine. NU is contending that Wheeler and 12 teammates were using supplements the day Wheeler collapsed. The university is trying to prove ephedrine played a part in Wheeler’s death. The Cook County Medical Examiner ruled Wheeler died because of bronchial asthma.

The announcement of settlement meetings came after several NU employees, including Walker and Taylor, were deposed by lawyers on Thursday and Friday.

Linda Will, Wheeler’s mother, told The Daily in October she wouldn’t settle until NU fired Walker and the entire football staff.