Athletic Director Mark Jackson made an appearance at Wednesday’s Faculty Senate meeting for a question-and-answer session, over a year after his appointment.
Faculty members discussed Northwestern athletics’ relationship with the rest of the University and later gave an overview of health care and benefits changes coming from the June announcement to switch from Blue Cross Blue Shield to UnitedHealthcare, effective Jan. 1, 2026.
Jackson began by emphasizing his aim to develop “complete student athletes,” touting high student retention rates, high graduation rates and a grade-point average among student athletes averaging 3.54.
“I’m really proud to tell you, in this transactional world of college athletics, that our retention rate is best in the country, and that’s amongst all 21 sports, all 500 plus student athletes,” Jackson said.
He outlined his goals as athletics director, including aligning athletics with the mission of the University, fostering a safe environment for students, maintaining budgets and winning championships.
Political science professor and Faculty Senate President Ian Hurd asked Jackson what has changed in NU Athletics since stories about hazing scandals came out about athletics.
Jackson responded that the University formed four committees to develop hazing prevention and address other concerns and highlighted the “Committee on Athletics and Recreation,” which ensures the athletics department is aligned with the University’s academic mission.
He said the Committee was supposed to take action in Fall Quarter 2025, but has been postponed due to administrative changes, including President Michael Schill’s resignation and Provost Kathleen Hagerty’s intent to step down at the end of the academic year.
Faculty also asked Jackson questions regarding athlete concussion safety around campus and hearing safety concerns at athletic events, as well as class attendance and athlete availability to journalism students. Jackson emphasized his commitment to partnering with faculty to address their concerns.
Communication Prof. Catherine Fabian expressed concern over student athletes on scooters not wearing helmets and the potentially dangerous noise levels at athletic events.
“When we see these athletes not protecting or preventing (concussion) vulnerability when they’re out and about, especially with school-sponsored perks, it’s concerning,” Fabian said.
Jackson clarified that he is not aware of any school-sponsored scooters given to student athletes. However, the athletic director said that if he could, he would ban scooters on campus, but can’t due to state laws.
History Prof. Helen Tilley expressed concern about attendance issues with student athletes. She said one of her students, a women’s soccer player, has missed four weeks of classes due to the success of the team.
She said she has had to meet with the student athlete on weekends to catch them up on class material.
“I don’t think athletics is really meeting the needs of the University in quite the way you imagine,” Tilley said. “I just ask you to think about that a little bit more carefully when you’re meeting with all the donors that we don’t even have access to and the trustees that we don’t have access to.”
Jackson responded, saying he hopes to find a middle ground and solutions to problems together with the Faculty.
After the Q&A with Jackson, Hurd invited the Chair of the Faculty Senate Salary and Benefits committee and McCormick Prof. Ian Horswill to provide an overview of the switch to UnitedHealthcare and changing benefits and answer faculty questions.
Horswill emphasized that his presentation was based on his understanding of the situation and meetings with administration about the switch, and said it is too late to undo the changes to the health care plan because the University signed a 3-year contract with UnitedHealthcare.
“What I’ve been trying to do is to get clarity on how the oversight and decision-making processes work,” Horswill said. “I think we want to make a proposal to have faculty and more generally employee representation in those processes.”
He said employee involvement in the decision to switch healthcares would have allowed faculty to understand what plan options were, what degree of flexibility the University administration had and why they made the decision to switch plans.
Other faculty members raised concerns that the switch to UnitedHealthcare would result in fewer approved claims and having to switch providers if their current ones don’t take UnitedHealthcare.
While he said the University claims that the switch is not going to change things that much, Horswill challenged that claim.
“Certainly it does mean that a different pool of doctors is in network, and that they pay smaller amounts to the individual doctors,” Horswill said. “Whether that went into the decision-making process or not, I don’t know, and I want us to get clarity on that.”
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