Following the Northwestern community’s requests for explanation, University President Morton Schapiro issued a Thursday statement defending Mike Polisky’s hire as the new athletic director.
On Monday, the University announced it appointed Polisky, deputy athletic director for external affairs, to oversee the athletic department. Within days, six faculty members co-signed an open letter calling for an independent investigation into the appointment. On Thursday, former cheerleader Erika Carter (SESP ’18) published a petition which has since received over 550 signatures to reconsider the decision.
Schapiro acknowledged the lawsuit by a member of the cheer team. In Weinberg senior Hayden Richardson’s federal lawsuit against the University and four staff members, Polisky was named a defendant. In it, she claimed Polisky accused her of fabricating evidence about sexual harassment. The University filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, the release stated.
When Northwestern named Mike Polisky its next athletic director on Monday, some faculty members moved to organize.
Six professors co-signed a Wednesday open letter to Provost Kathleen Hagerty, calling on the University to increase transparency in the selection process.
“The hiring of Polisky… signals a troubling continuity in Athletic Department leadership that, while successful in some areas, failed the University and its students in significant ways,” the letter stated. “We are alarmed by this decision and, indeed, embarrassed on behalf of the university.”
Polisky was named a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed by a former cheerleader earlier this year. In the suit, Weinberg senior Hayden Richardson alleged that Polisky failed to appropriately address complaints filed about sexual harassment. Additionally, in an investigation from The Daily, multiple sources claimed that Polisky did not take allegations of anti-Black racism within the cheer team seriously.
Growing up, Weinberg junior Pari Thakkar said Hinduism was a significant part of her life. However, after she came to Northwestern, she had no one to go to with questions about navigating her relationship with religion as a college student.
“I think oftentimes, as a secular university, we tend to forget about the importance of religion for those who practice it and choose to rely on it and depend on it,“ Thakkar said.
A chaplain was necessary for the Hindu community at NU, Thakkar said.
The University instituted a Hindu chaplain position after over 150 years since its founding. NU now has an estimated 800 Hindus in its community, inaugural chaplain Amar Shah (Weinberg ‘16) said, based on estimations from the Department of Religious and Spiritual Life.
When Communication sophomore and former Shepard Residential College president Zach Forbes saw his residential college’s community service officer without a mask, he asked her to comply with Northwestern’s COVID-19 guidelines. He said he found her to be unresponsive to his requests.
Forbes, who fielded resident complaints that the officer made them feel unsafe, said he brought the issue to the Residential College Board and area council advisors.
After a short, unexplained hiatus from the dorm, the same officer was back a few weeks later without a mask, still unresponsive to requests that she wear a mask, he said.
Northwestern will announce a decision on potential vaccination requirements for students in early May and in-person expectations as early as June, according to a Thursday release sent to faculty and staff. The University plans to be in-person this fall to the extent that public health guidance will allow, a goal that University President Morton Schapiro.