The Old ‘Not Taking It Lightly’ Routine
Akin to “Our thoughts and prayers are with you,” this time it’s Northwestern University that’s bouncing 450 staff members, blaming budget cuts.
“Laying off staff is a drastic step that causes pain and anxiety both for the individuals whose lives are affected, but also for our entire community, and we do not take it lightly.”
Oh, do tell me more, honored place of learning and enlightenment.
“Northwestern has taken numerous measures over the past several months to ‘protect the University’s long-term financial stability,’ including changing employee benefits, implementing a hiring freeze, reducing non-personnel expenses and forgoing annual raises,” the university said in a statement.
I’ll just bet those numerous measures went down like a vitamin-stuck-in-the-throat for staff, excluding (of course) the President of the University.
Northwestern President Morton Schapiro, made $2.35 million in 2014.
(Chicago Tribune) Schapiro's 2014 compensation included $924,658 in base pay, $100,000 in bonuses and $188,842 in nontaxable benefits, which could include health-care and medical benefits, life insurance and university-provided housing. An additional $1.14 million was classified as “other” and could include cashed-out vacation pay, travel, meals, spending accounts, debt forgiveness and other miscellaneous benefits, according to the report.
That’s of somewhat personal interest for me, as my brother graduated from Northwestern with an engineering degree and our family lived in Evanston for my first 22 years. My first home as a married man was on the street that looked out at Dyche Stadium, where the Wildcats pretty consistently got their butts kicked on Saturdays.
But hang on, I can hear the bugles of a cavalry charge in the distance.
An outfit called The Ryan Sports Family demolished Dyche Stadium in 2022 and will open Ryan Field for games in the 2026 season. They are said to be donating the entire $850 million cost, and the university will receive all income in perpetuity.
Being cagey on revenue sources, Northwestern has not publicly disclosed a specific annual revenue share from the Ryan Field redevelopment project itself. There are no figures showing direct university revenue such as stadium revenues directed to Northwestern. Most analyses focus on economic impacts to the City of Evanston and broader community (which are huge) rather than revenue accruing directly to the university.
Cagey isn’t cool, when you fire 450 employees and Northwestern itself stated the rebuild would generate nearly $1.2 billion economic impact to the Evanston area by 2031.
One would presume, at the very least, that the university would come clean on revenues vs expenses. But I suppose the president of Northwestern has a say over those decisions, and his current pay package may reflect shadowy choices made in that area.
Important to consider that Northwestern is a private school and probably subject to slightly different pressures than publics. Not sure exactly how that changes things, but it might matter.
Public or private, though, schools are, despite whatever storied pasts they claim, businesses and beholden to their owners—moneyed interests whose values seldom extend in meaningful ways to those of the public.
As you have written elsewhere, this is yet another example of the chop-shop mentality that strips organizations down to the parts that can be sold or commoditized (if that’s a word).
Employees — or “people” as they were once known — are not currently commodities that can be bought and sold, with the possible exception of athletes.
But looky there! It’s the Ryan SPORTS Family (“family,” my ass) that has demolished the heretofore marginally public, grubby old asset and replaced it with a new one.
It’s not a donation. It’s an investment. A down payment on the Northwestern house, which the Ryan mob (and others like it) will soon own, free and clear. Screw the people.
The only Northwestern employee that matters in this acquisition is Schapiro. He’s gambling that if he sucks up sufficiently, he can become a player. The Ryanmacht and similar thugs will always be able to find capos like him to carry a meat hook and drag the dead bodies out of the way. He will get his, if there’s any justice (be prepared to discuss on the exam).
Is your old house still standing?